Whitney Museum Screens Taken Over With Gaza Protest Messages
Artist Jonathan Allen superimposed pro-Palestinian, anti-genocide messages onto two advertising screens outside the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan at about 10:30pm on July 2. The action constituted the 438th and 439th installments of Allen’s “Interruptions” series (2017–present), created by applying paint and plastic over moving digital displays. One screen paraphrased an allegation from a June 2026 United Nations report stating that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children, while the other quoted Ta-Nehisi Coates from a 2025 conversation with Angela Davis at the University of Michigan: “If you can't draw the line at genocide, you probably can't draw the line at democracy.” Whitney communications director Ashley Reece said the museum removed the installations on July 3 after learning of vandalism and reiterated a zero-tolerance policy, while Allen said he aimed to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza; the right-wing X account Stop Antisemitism criticized the action, which Allen denied was antisemitic.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Museums Under Pressure