NEW YORK, June 28, 2006 Following on the heels of an increasingly internationalized biennial, the Whitney Museum is celebrating its 75th anniversary by going back to its American roots with Full House, the most ambitious, top-to-bottom exhibition of its permanent collection in its history: Its a rare opportunity for the museum to dust off some of the rarely seen gems of its collection.

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Full House in its own way presents curators with some of the same, difficult challenges faced year after year by biennial curators. Most notably, how to present a survey of the best American art while avoiding the pitfall of becoming an unimaginative greatest hits checklist? Add over one hundred years to cover and myriad artistic movements to reckon with, and the dilemma is even greater.

Permanent collection curator Donna De Salvo wisely avoided any attempt to present a comprehensive survey, instead opting to arrange key works around three flashpoints in American art: Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and Minimalism.

Spurning chronology, Full House offers such unexpected pairings as Jeff Koons plastic-encased Hoover vacuum cleaners with a 1932 industrial landscape by Charles Sheeler. Stumbling next upon Claes Oldenburgs florid, zebra-striped Bedroom Ensemble, its easy to forget that were still perusing works grouped under the Minimalism rubricalthough the nearby monumental steel sculptures of Robert Morris and the eloquently understated works of Donald Judd quickly remind us.

Downstairs, we find body-conscious works by Robert Gober, Cindy Sherman and David Wojnarowicz not far from the consumer-culture-inspired Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Roy Litchenstein, with a bit of surrealism and early 90s political art thrown in for good measure.

While certain areas seem to lack, such as performance-oriented works, other genres are pleasingly abundant. Rather than limiting the Abstract Expressionists to Pollock and de Kooning, visitors are treated with a wide range of work by artists from Joan Mitchell to Franz Kline. Most notably, an entire floor is devoted to showcasing the Whitneys exceptional collection of Edward Hopper sketches and drawings, supplemented by some of his best known canvases from around the country.

Full House is exactly that: an exhibition chock full of some of the best American art of the past century. It also makes a valiant attempt to shake up the run-of-the-mill interpretations of that art, both old and new. Just dont strain too hard trying to figure out what Chuck Close has to do with Jasper Johns.