Preview our Spring 2024 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting
Text by Kathryn Kanjo, Robert Storr, Quincy Troupe.
For five decades, New York-based artist Jack Whitten (born 1939) has explored the possibilities of paint, the role of the artist and the allure of materials. As a child of the segregated South, he bears witness to expressions of evil and the resilience of the human spirit. From his first spectral canvases to his recent mosaic canvases, Whitten's compelling compositions have spanned a half-century of artistic innovation. Showcasing approximately 60 canvases, this survey--the first substantial volume on the artist--reveals Whitten as an innovator who uses abstraction in its newest idioms to achieve an enduring gravitas. Whitten's abiding engagement with scientific systems (as structure), social issues (as evidence) and commitment to the power of visual expression (materiality) show him to be an artist both of his time and for the present.
Featured image is reproduced from Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting.
"Sigmar Polke, yeah. I knew immediately the fucking guy was on drugs," Jack Whitten says to Robert Storr in their extensive, extremely engaging interview published in Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting. "Immediately I knew. Why did I know? Because I recognized the light. We in America had been there. We did it. It has a specific light. Anyone who is high and uses paint, that light comes up, I know immediately what they’re doin’. There’s a structure to it. It gives you a way of turning loose, alright? I knew that from the early jazz musicians that I met here in New York. I used to hang out in the jazz clubs. You know, you’re talking to somebody that actually knew Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Kenny Dorham, Miles Davis—I actually knew those people. Jackie McLean—that was my thing, hanging out in jazz clubs. ‘Cause even up into the early ‘60s, I still thought that I had a shot with my tenor saxophone." Featured image is Brilliant Corners (For Thelonious 'Sphere' Monk) (1973). continue to blog
"Pink Psyche Queen" (1973) is reproduced from Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting, the first substantial overview of this important yet egregiously overlooked artist—published to accompany the retrospective currently on view at the Walker Art Center. "I came to New York to study at the Cooper Union in 1960," Whitten is quoted in Kathryn Kanjo's essay. "I came in at a time right at the end of Abstract Expressionism, Pop artists were moving in. There were a lot of things in flux. I came in at a time where the scene was open. I had the opportunity to know Bill de Kooning; I had the opportunity to know Franz Kline; I had the opportunity to know Philip Guston, Barney Newman, Rothko. All these people actually met with me, talked to me. I was just a student, an art student! People were more open. The scene was more open. Okay, all these people were white, but at the same time I met Romare Bearden; I met Jacob Lawrence; I met Norman Lewis. Can you imagine what this meant for me? I’m getting information from both sides of the divide and, believe me, we’re talking a divide. Those divides did not meet. By being a student—my coming in at that opportune time—I had access to both sides of the divide. In retrospect, this was the best thing that could have happened to me, a young, black kid from Alabama—from the background that I came out of—to have access to these kinds of people. I am talking mentor figures." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 12 in. / 204 pgs / 150 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 GBP £40.00 ISBN: 9780934418744 PUBLISHER: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego AVAILABLE: 10/27/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Text by Kathryn Kanjo, Robert Storr, Quincy Troupe.
For five decades, New York-based artist Jack Whitten (born 1939) has explored the possibilities of paint, the role of the artist and the allure of materials. As a child of the segregated South, he bears witness to expressions of evil and the resilience of the human spirit. From his first spectral canvases to his recent mosaic canvases, Whitten's compelling compositions have spanned a half-century of artistic innovation. Showcasing approximately 60 canvases, this survey--the first substantial volume on the artist--reveals Whitten as an innovator who uses abstraction in its newest idioms to achieve an enduring gravitas. Whitten's abiding engagement with scientific systems (as structure), social issues (as evidence) and commitment to the power of visual expression (materiality) show him to be an artist both of his time and for the present.
