West Coast at the Whitney

Of all the big New York museums the Whitney presents California art the most consistently and perceptively. This summer the Whitney is debuting "Mary Corse: A Survey in Light" (coming to LACMA, which co-organized). Meanwhile Agnes Pelton commands equal wall space with Georgia O'Keeffe, and Clarissa Tossin is a standout of the Whitney's "Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art." (At top is a still from Tossin's 2017 video Ch'u Mayaa, commissioned for PST LA/LA. Choreographer Crystal Sepúlveda re-appropriates the Mayan Revivalism of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House.)

Agnes Pelton, Sea Change, 1931

The Whitney's latest permanent collection installation starts with two Agnes Pelton paintings. That's the same number that Georgia O'Keeffe gets. In the 1930s the two women modernists were of approximately equal renown. Both moved west, but Pelton moved further west (to Cathedral City, Calif.) and didn't have the Steiglitz connection.

Near the Peltons and O'Keeffes is a Ruth Asawa that commands a Hudson River landscape.

Ruth Asawa, Number 1—1955, 1954

A survey of political art, "An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney's Collection, 1940–2017" has a no-less impressive West Coast contingent. There are installations by L.A. period Melvin Edwards and Ed Kienholz, plus recent works by Mark Bradford and Daniel Martinez.

Melvin Edwards, Pyramid Up and Down Pyramid, 1969

Edwards' Pyramid Up and Down Pyramid (1969) is a kind of Fred Sandback deal made of barbed wire. When shown at the Whitney in 1970 it impressed David Hammons as "the first abstract piece of art that I saw that had cultural value in it for Black people."

Daniel Martinez, Divine Violence, 2007

The Martinez, Divine Violence (2007), tweaks the East Coast conception of L.A. art. It's an installation of gold-ground panel paintings—automotive paint, naturally. They record, in a neutral Norm Laich-esque hand, the names of political organizations that advocated violence. Fascist baddies coexist with collectives approved by many progressives and moderates. Well-known names mingle with the obscure, coalescing into a concrete poetry of potential James Bond villains. Meet the World Punishment Organization… Sane Thinkers School… Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks… All are as real as the Gestapo and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Installation view of "Mary Corse: A Survey in Light"