Interview

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This spring’s Whitney Biennial marks the 75th anniversary of the polymorphous, polyphonic exhibition devoted to contemporary art in America—by no means a small marker for a show charged with shoring up our understanding of the art world’s current climate. Over the years, some of the finest curators have weighed in in the Biennial—as have many of the most prominent artists. But the very cultural weight of defining contemporary art in America might explain why, in recent decades, the Biennial has increasingly become a minefield of debate. Many have argued that it is impossible to delineate what “American” art is anymore, or that the very exercise of trying to establish some systematic answer is a futility bordering (alas, for the curator) on hubris. Others have said that the Biennialis too East- and West Coast–minded, toooriented toward New York City’s Chelsea gallery scene, or too obsessed with youth. In recent Biennials, it seems that thevarious curators and their search teams have responded to these outcries: They’ve continually included more and more work from a wider variety of artists—even adding off-site venues.

Many curators—and art-goers—would argue that the point of a show like the Biennial isn’t to please art insiders in the first place, and that the debate that arises is itself what makes it so American. The pressing question remains for 2010: Where to go? Enter Francesco Bonami, who, along with his co-curator for this year’s Whitney Biennial, Gary Carrion-Murayari, has a very precise vision of what this Biennial will be. Specifically, the two men have reeled in the polyglot, instead employing a much more paired-down stable of artists with a more sparing selection of work.

Bonami is no stranger to curating politically explosive and internationally renowned shows—he curated the 2003 Venice Biennale, among other exhibitions. But for the Whitney Biennial 2010 (note the lack of a grandiose subtitle), Bonami has taken a more intimate approach, striving to produce a sensitive barometer for what it means to be making art in America in 2010. This doesn’t mean the selections won’t be political or controversial or even shocking. There is no way to define present-day art in America—or, rather, as Bonami sees it, “American-ness”—without getting your hands dirty. And if the list of 55 artists included is any indication, there is as extreme a variety in age, sex, gender, race, orientation, geography, medium, and message as ever.

Lisa Phillips, the director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, has curated six Whitney Biennials herself—as recently as 1997. She sat down with Bonami at the Bowery Hotel in late November to discuss his approach to putting together this year’s Biennial and his plansfor the exhibition. In fact, most of the questions that Phillipsposed to Bonami are the very same ones that Bonami put to her 13 years ago for Flash Art, when she was last in the curator’s chair.