East of East L.A.: Whitney Museum's 'Art Apartheid'
by Armando Durón The release of the list of artists to be included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s inaugural show at its new downtown space in New York City was widely anticipated in the art world. An article that lamented the dearth of Latino artist sparked controversy. This news came on the heels of the revelation a week earlier that almost one third of major solo shows in U.S. museums go to artists represented by just five galleries. (More on that later.) Meanwhile, the name of the Whitney’s extravaganza, “America Is Hard to See,” is, perhaps, more appropriate than the curators could have imagined. The article appearing on the arts blog Hyperallergic alleged that despite being 18 percent of the population nationwide, Latinos accounted for just 4 percent of the represented artists in the Whitney exhibition. The next day, the list of the artists included was released. I got out my red pen and circled the names of the artists I believed fit the bill. All I had to do was fi...