Art: Rush at the Whitney

To raise money for their building fund, the four-year-old New York Artists Equity Association offered the public a grab-bag art show at the Whitney Museum. The terms were challengingly simple. Admission: $100 a couple and take your pick of more than 500 pieces of donated painting and sculpture—some of them by such top-notchers as Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ben Shahn, Isabel Bishop and William Zorach. The only catch: the art was all untitled and signatures were taped over with adhesive.

Art lovers jumped at the challenge. By 3 p.m. one day last week—four hours before the doors opened—they began to queue up outside...