American artist Jack Whitten (1939 – 2018) is known for his radical approaches to abstract painting and sculpture. In this guide to Whitten’s life and work, art critic Yinka Elujoba offers an insightful overview of the artist’s practice.
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In The Studio: Jack Whitten
- Hauser & Wirth Publishers
- Text by Yinka Elujoba
- April 2025 $19.95 / £16.99 / €18 / CHF 15 / HKD 140 A fascinating insight into the creation of Jack Whitten’s pioneering artworks.
Explore the rich history, myriad influences and inventive techniques that informed Whitten’s six-decade career, and discover the rigorous process that gave rise to his groundbreaking reimagining of what is possible in paint.
“I see no paintings to excite me. I must look at my surroundings for purity for honesty for absolute materialization of matter.”
Jack Whitten
Additional Resources
Study Resource
A guide for educators, students and anyone who would like to gain a deeper insight into the artist’s thought processes, sources of inspiration and studio life.
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In the Studio
Explore a new series from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, gives readers a behind-the-scenes view of artists at work. Each book focuses on a major figure of twentieth- or twenty-first-century art offering an introduction to their influences, materials and techniques. Written by leading scholars and critics and generously illustrated, In the Studio titles are the perfect companion for art lovers and newcomers alike.
About the artist
Born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1939, Jack Whitten is celebrated for his innovative processes of applying paint to the surface of his canvases and transfiguring their material terrains. 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.
Photos © Jack Whitten Estate: Jack Whitten with ‘Pink Psyche Queen’ (c. 1975); In The Studio: Jack Whitten, Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2025; Jack Whitten carving wood, Agia Galini, Crete, 1986; ‘Jack Whitten: An Artist’s Life,’ (2018) produced by Art21 for ‘Extended Play’; School of Visual Arts Contemporary Perspectives Lecture with Jack Whitten (2016), Boston University; Jack Whitten Opening-Day Talk (2015), Walker Art Center; Jack Whitten in his studio, Woodside, Queens NY, 2016. Photo: John Berens