1963: Marcel Breuer Receives His Commission
Breuer was a student of the Bauhaus, and his pitch to the Whitney Museum contained a radical proposal: to challenge what an American institution like. He wanted his building to “encourage a spiritual belief in the transformative power of art,” writes Jill Krasny.
1963: Construction Begins
After being selected for the commission, construction began in 1963, where Breuer planned a space that would stand as a singular monument amid the towering New York structures.
1963-66: Construction Continues
The building was innovative in its use of materials, including its famed concrete ceiling.
1963-66: Construction Continues
Three of its five stories feature expansive gallery space, with offices inhabiting the top floor.
1963-66: Construction Continues
375 circular, concrete lights were custom built for the lobby – and later lovingly restored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1963-66: Construction Continues
The hulking, cantilevered hunk of concrete sits cheek-by-jowl among the brownstones and neoclassical architecture of Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
1963-66: Construction Continues
The museum’s opening was highly anticipated – it was one of several new projects along Manhattan’s Museum Mile, including the recently opened Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
1963-66: Construction Continues
None other than Jacqueline Kennedy followed the opening closely. Here she’s pictured with Breuer at the construction site on October 21, 1965.
1966: JBKO Attends the Opening
On September 26, 1966, the museum opened on the corner of East 75th Street and Madison Avenue, becoming Breuer’s only built work in Manhattan. Jackie Kennedy attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A Controversial Marvel
Critics were divided on its opening, with one referring to it as “somber and severe for many tastes” in the New York Times. Although not receiving much natural light due to sparse window placement, the jutting trapezoidal windows created dynamic views and a distinctive design.
1973: The Inaugural Whitney Biennial
In 1973, the inaugural Whitney Biennial took place in the Breuer building, marking one of the most anticipated recurring events in American art and solidifying the artist-centered approach that the museum would maintain throughout its tenure.
1973: The Inaugural Whitney Biennial
At the biennial, the setting’s pioneering architecture gave way to an interesting dialogue between the works and the interior.
1975: Charles Simonds’ ‘Dwelling’
Artist Charles Simonds installed this Dwelling during the 1975 biennial, accompanied by a beloved companion piece that takes permanent residence in the Breuer’s stairwell. A later sculpture was permanently installed in the stairwell in 1981.
1993: The Groundbreaking Biennial Continues
Twenty years later, after the first biennial, Thelma Golden, John G. Hanhardt, Lisa Phillips, and Elisabeth Sussman curated the 1993 biennial, which would later become one of the most contentious, most discussed moments in 20th-century art due to its unflinching approach to topics such as police brutality, the AIDS crisis and systemic racism.
1993: The Groundbreaking Biennial Continues
The 1993 edition lives on as a landmark exhibition in US art history, with co-curator Elisabeth Sussman reflecting in Artforum: “It’s fair to say that we had a mission to make a strong statement, to demonstrate the kind of exhibition making we thought was important, to powerfully confront the issues engulfing America and the art world.”
2010: The Whitney Vacates Its Iconic Home
By 2010, the Whitney announced its plans to open a Renzo Piano-designed museum in the Meatpacking District and closed its run in the Breuer space with a lauded retrospective of work by Jeff Koons – who rose to prominence himself at an earlier biennial.
2016-21: The Met Breuer Years
Jumping at the chance to expand its programming for modern and contemporary art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art took over as a satellite location, investing in the care and restoration of the space.
2016-21: The Met Years
The Met Breuer explored the aesthetics of incompleteness in its debut exhibition, Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible.
2016-21: The Met Years
In 2017, The Met Breuer hosted Kerry James Marshall: Mastery, one of the most critically lauded exhibitions of the 2010s, continuing the venue’s legacy of displaying exemplary artists from the United States.
2021-25: The Frick Years
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Met vacated the museum, turning it over to the Frick, who reopened it in 2021 during renovations to their famed museum in Henry Clay Frick’s 5th Ave mansion.
Old Masters Find a Modern Home
The Frick’s chapter on Madison provided an incredible opportunity to view some of New York’s most prized masterpieces in the context of a 20th-century modern landmark.
A Study in Contrasts
New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl reflected that the building provided a “shock to the senses” for the Frick collection, making it “an illustrative historical artifact that happens to be breathtaking in many of its parts.”
2023-Present: The Sotheby’s Years
With the Frick’s renovations complete, in 2023 Sotheby’s announced its purchase of Breuer’s modernist landmark as its headquarters and a space to exhibit art. Shortly thereafter, New York City designated the building an historic landmark. After further renovations overseen by architects Herzog & de Meuron, Sotheby’s Breuer is set to open to the public on November 8, 2025.
In 1963, when Marcel Breuer received the commission to design the Whitney Museum of American Art, he was at the height of his architectural prowess. While critics met Breuer’s bold vision with some skepticism, his building’s enduring reputation stands on the architect’s capacity to transmute hard materials like concrete and stone into a place of spiritual elevation.
One month from today, on November 8, 2025, Sotheby’s will move into the storied building, making it its New York headquarters. Before we do, here’s a look back at some of the greatest moments from the architectural marvel’s 62-year history.
– Texts by Bryan Martin