In an act of uncharacteristic humility, the Whitney Museum called its 2015 reopening show “America Is Hard to See.” It was an acknowledgement that a country as complex as ours is difficult to comprehend. A survey of American art is always going to be highly selective and heavily curated — a story told by a participant-observer with his or her own perspective on a monstrously difficult subject.
Jersey artists angle their way into the arguments all over the exhibition, including Somerville-born, Newark-raised Willie Cole, who leads with the spear-tip sizzle of his red-hot iron, and Orange’s quietly confrontational Bisa Butler, who stitches fabric from West Africa into a brilliant, radiant portrait of an African American family on the move. Stroke by stroke and stitch by stitch, these local heroes demonstrate that they deserve to be in this company, and that their own personal versions of American history are as valid as anything in a textbook.
