Hauser & Wirth at New York 2023

Jack Whitten. Not just a formal exercise

Stand B09
​17 May – 21 May

New York....Hauser & Wirth’s stand at Frieze New York 2023 is dedicated to a solo presentation of work by late American abstractionist Jack Whitten (1939-2018). One of the most influential artists of his generation, Whitten is renowned for his innovative processes, applying and transfiguring paint in works equally concerned with materiality, politics and metaphysics. This highly curated selection of paintings, works on paper and sculpture not only examines Whitten’s tireless technical experimentation over six decades of making, but reconsiders his use of an intentionally restrained black and white palette. Stemming from a desire to combine the formal elements of color with their political and sociological associations, Whitten recognized that ‘...getting rid of all the chroma and taking it to black and white is not just a formal exercise. I’m very much aware of the meaning of black and white in American society, which informs who I am as an African American.’

This special presentation features monochromatic works from each decade of Whitten’s remarkable and ever-evolving career, chronicling his formal development as an artist and relentless material innovation. From the small ethereal ‘ghost’ paintings of the 1960s and works on paper made with Xerox’s electrosta- tic printing technology in the 1970s to the tessellated acrylic paint mosaics he developed in the 1990s, Whitten’s black and white compositions foreground the meditative, contemplative and spiritual essence of physical matter. This is also evidenced in his lesser-known sculptural work, which he maintained throughout his life. Whitten believed sculpture fueled his practice and changed how he approached light, saying that ‘Without a doubt, the sculpture has had more influence on my painting than anything else. The concept of light is different in a sculptor’s mind than it is in a painter’s...In carving you’re revealing the light in reaction to external light...Through sculpture I have refactored my whole way and approach to painting.’

About the artist ​
​Born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1939, Whitten was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement before moving north to New York City in the early 1960s and enrolling at Cooper Union. Although Whitten initially aligned with the New York circle of abstract expressionists active in the 1960s, his work gradually distanced from the movement’s aesthetic philosophy and formal concerns, focusing more intensely on the experimental aspects of process and technique that came to define his practice. In the 1970s, Whitten’s experiments with the materiality of paint reached a climax—removing a thick slab of acrylic paint from its support, he realized that the medium could be coaxed into the form of an independent object. Whitten used this mode of experimentation to challenge pre-existing notions of dimensionality in painting, repeatedly layering slices of acrylic ribbon in uneven fields of wet paint to mimic the application of mosaic tessarae to wet masonry. Over the course of a six decade career, Whitten’s work bridged rhythms of gestural abstraction and process art, arriving at a nuanced lan- guage of painting, which hovers between mechanical automation and intensely personal expression. Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Paintings, the first-ever exhibition devoted to Whitten’s Greek Alphabet painting series of 1975-78, is on view at Dia Beacon in New York through 10 July, 2023.

For additional information, please contact:

Andrea Schwan, Andrea Schwan Inc., andrea@andreaschwan.com, +1 917 371 5023
​Christine McMonagle, Hauser & Wirth, christinemcmonagle@hauserwirth.com, +1 347 320 8596

^{All Images:}
​^{Jack Whitten
​© Jack Whitten Estate
​Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth}

^{Untitled
​1976
​Acrylic on canvas
​181 x 179.1 cm / 71 1/4 x 70 1/2 in
​Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer}

^{Xeroxed!, III
​1975
​Toner and rice paper mounted to canvas stretched
​152.4 x 201.9 x 5.1 cm / 60 x 79 1/2 x 2 in
​Photo: John Berens}

^{The Apollonian Sword
​2014
​Marble, metal, lead, charred black mulberry wood
​Unique
​184 x 56 x 46 cm / 72 1/2 x 22 x 18 1/8 in
​Photo: Genevieve Hanson}

^{Heads in Motion XII, Portrait of a Lady I, Heads XIII
​1964
​Acrylic on canvas, triptych
​1. 67.3 x 54.6 cm / 26.5 x 21.5 in
​2. 58.1 x 48.9 cm / 22.9 x 19.25 in
​3. 61 x 50.8 cm / 24 x 20 in
​Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer
​Portrait of Jack Whitten ca. 1974-1975}