Reading & Book Launch: Jack Whitten ‘Notes from the Woodshed’

Hauser & Wirth Publishers is proud to present ‘Notes from the Woodshed’ – the first publication devoted to the writings of Jack Whitten (1939 – 2018). On the occasion of the artist’s commemorative survey in Los Angeles, ‘Jack Whitten. Self Portrait With Satellites,’ and in celebration of the recent publication, please join us for a reading of select excerpts by Whitten’s close friends and former students, alongside LA-based artists and curators. Readers include: Candida Alvarez, Jose Luis Blondet, Joshua Chambers Letson, Erin Christovale, Harry Dodge, Naima Keith, Diana Nawi, Betye Saar, Gary Simmons, Lily Blue Simmons, Bennett Simpson, and Alphaeus Taylor. We are also honored to welcome Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles, Robin Coste Lewis, who will read her new poem ‘Mother Church Number 10: Homage to Whitten.’ This event is free, however, due to limited capacity reservations are recommended. Click here to register. About ‘Jack Whitten. Notes from the Woodshed’ Widely celebrated for his experimental approach to painting, Jack Whitten often turned to writing as a way to investigate, understand, and grapple with his practice and his milieu. ‘Notes from the Woodshed’ is the first publication devoted to Whitten’s writings and takes its name from the heading Whitten scrawled across many of his texts. Working across various forms – from meticulous daily logs, to developed longer essays, to published statements and public talks – Whitten’s reflections span the course of his six-decade career and give conceptual depth to an oeuvre that bridged rhythms of gestural abstraction and process art. Together, these writings shed light on Whitten’s singularly nuanced language of painting, which hovers between mechanical automation and intensely personal expression.