''Day's End'' is a 2021 permanent

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

project designed by the American artist

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

. Originally commissioned by the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, the work consists of an architectural outline of a

pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

made of stainless steel tubes and

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...

and installed on the

Hudson River Park Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River (Hudson River) that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches and ...

along the southern edge of Gansevoort Peninsula.

History

The work was inspired by the 1975 intervention installation work titled ''Days End, Conical Intersect'' by the American 20th-century artist

Gordon Matta-Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

. In the original installation, Matta-Clark created five large incisions into the Pier 52 shed, which had formerly occupied the site and measured 373 feet in length and 50 feet in height. The purpose of Matta-Clark's work was to "let in light that would change during days and seasons", which he saw as “a peaceful enclosure”. The artist also described it as a "renovation" of a "decaying sad reminder of a previous industrial era". The contemporary work by Hammons was announced by the Whitney Museum in 2017 and completed in 2021. It is made made of stainless steel tubes and

and consists of an open structure that adheres to the dimensions, proportions, and placement of the previous shed. The director of the Whitney

Adam D. Weinberg Adam D. Weinberg is an art museum curator and director. He has been the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art since October 1, 2003. Education He holds a BA from Brandeis University and a master's degree from the Visual ...

called the installation a "hybrid" which incorporated "architecture, sculpture, drawing, site-specific project, land art, appropriated object, and none of the above".

Reception

Upon its unveiling in 2021, Critic

Holland Cotter Holland Cotter is an art critic with ''The New York Times''. In 2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Life and work Cotter was born in Connecticut and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He earned his A.B. from Harvard College in 1970, wh ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called the work "an immortalizing homage to Gordon Matta-Clark and art history" and suggested that it was "roomy enough to accommodate all the brilliant fragments of an incomparable career". At the same time, Kathleen Langjahr, writing for ''

The Architect's Newspaper ''The Architect's Newspaper'' is an architectural publication that covers the United States in monthly printed issues and online. The paper was founded in 2003 by William Menking, editor-in-chief, and Diana Darling, publisher, to bring architects ...

'', said that ''Day's End'' failed to "live up to the impossible hopes of a previous generation". She also remained skeptical of the public character of the artwork saying that the installation, similarly to the neighboring

Little Island at Pier 55 Little Island at Pier 55 (stylized as Little Island @Pier55) is an artificial island park in the Hudson River west of Manhattan in New York City, adjoining Hudson River Park. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is near the intersection of West ...

, was "pitched as a 'gift' from the city’s wealthiest, for which we are expected to be grateful". In a review for ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'', Peter L'Official recalled the rich queer history of Pier 52, once a prominent cruising site for gay men in the 1970s. He drew attention to the compelling connection between this storied location and Alvin Baltrop's evocative photographs, which capture the homosexual encounters of that era.

History

Reception

References

Further reading