The Beginning of 'Day's End'

At sunset on Monday, Sept. 16, the Whitney Museum of American Art celebrated the groundbreaking of "Day’s End," a permanent public art project by New York-based artist David Hammons. Slated for completion in the fall of 2020, the project was developed in collaboration with the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT). The sculpture will be located in Hudson River Park, directly across from the Museum, within the footprint of the former Pier 52. Hammons’s project derives its inspiration and name from Gordon Matta-Clark's 1975 artwork in which he cut openings into the abandoned Pier 52 shed, transforming it into monumental sculpture.

An open structure that follows the outline and dimensions of the original Pier 52 structure, Hammons’s work will be a “ghost monument” to the earlier work by Matta-Clark and allude to the history of New York’s waterfront, from the commercial piers that stood along the Hudson River during the heyday of New York's shipping industry to the reclaimed piers that became a gathering place for the gay and artist communities.

“The Whitney’s collaboration with David Hammons, one of the most influential artists of our time, represents our profound commitment to working with living artists and supporting their visions intimate or grand,” said Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. “Just steps away from the Whitney, Day’s End celebrates the history of the Hudson River waterfront and the neighborhood and the City. We are deeply grateful for the support Day’s End has already received from New York City, as well as neighborhood, arts, historic preservation, LGBTQ, commercial and environmental groups, and we look forward to the ribbon-cutting in fall of 2020.”