“David is my contemporary art. I don’t pretend to have an original eye.” -Philip Johnson

Although Philip Johnson’s biographer Franz Schulze referred to him as a “wife” and he identified himself as the homemaker, David Grainger Whitney (1939-2005) was an accomplished curator and editor, an avid art collector and gardener, a loyal friend to many artists, an art adviser to New York’s powerful elite, and an advocate of contemporary art. In contrast to his outspoken partner of forty-five years, Philip Johnson, Whitney was an éminence grise, an art world insider who preferred to maintain his privacy. Whitney’s circle of friends included Modern masters such as Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Gehry, Frank Stella, Ken Price, among others.

Film, no audio, also on view at The Philip Johnson Glass House Visitor Center in New Canaan, CT, USA.