During the 1970s, Whitten made the conscious decision to remove all gestural mark-making from his work, switching gears to focus more on mechanical automation. At this time, the artist was inspired by his early training in craft and science—in particular, his ongoing research into quantum mechanics and contemporary imaging technologies. Removing the use of pens and brushes in his drawings and paintings, the artist instead made and used unconventional tools to create abstract constructions. As Whitten stated, ‘After several experiments, I built what I called the Developer, an analogy to photography, which was meant to rebuke the notion of touch.’ Employing rakes, rubber squeegees, saws and Afro combs, Whitten’s floor-based tool allowed him to spread and manipulate wet paint as he pulled the ‘Developer’ through the liquid surface. Working on the floor of his studio, the artist created a flat platform, the drawing board, on top of which he placed his canvas.
Examples from Whitten’s DNA series (1979) are on display, where a painted, abstract background has been raked or combed to create a gridded pattern, a technique likened to deconstructing the photographic process, revealing—or in photographic terms, ‘developing’—imagery beneath an acrylic coating. A second technical innovation came when Whitten began to place a variety of flat found objects—metal sheets, pebbles or wire—beneath the surface of his canvas to generate ‘disruptions’ in the form of frottage. Reiterating the innovative nature of this period, Whitten said, ‘I like to think of my studio as a laboratory where experiments are conducted.’
On view in the exhibition, and exemplary of Whitten’s indirect painting methods, are four works from the artist’s renowned Greek Alphabet series. Greece was an important influence throughout the artist’s career. Whitten’s wife, Mary, was Greek and the two first visited the country together in 1969. They would later decide to spend every summer on the island of Crete. Realized between 1975 and 1978, Whitten’s Greek Alphabet series consists of variations of predominantly black and white, abstract compositions ordered per the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. Featuring repeated parallel vertical and horizontal lines that varyingly intersect, ‘Xzee III’ from this series recalls the complex meander pattern of ancient Greek art, inspired by extended periods of time spent in Crete. The ‘Greek Alphabet’ paintings, including other works such as ‘Nee II’ (1977) and ‘Gamma Group #1’ (1976), are not only technical and material explorations but deeply intimate works that speak to Whitten’s personal connections to Greece as well as his identity as a Black American. While making the series, Whitten studied modern Greek, which had an obvious impact on the work titles, many of which are phonetic spellings of letters in the Greek alphabet.
It was mainly in the Cretan village of Agia Galini that Whitten’s sculptural practice was carried out. Working in an outdoor workshop, these works consisted of carved wood, often in combination with found materials sourced from his local environment, including bone, marble, paper, glass, nails and fishing lines. Whitten’s sculptural works were private in nature, their creation an act of ritual as much as expression and were of great personal significance to the artist. This includes the sculpture ‘Reliquary For Orfos’ (1978) with an upright, slightly tilted posture recalling that of ancient Cycladic figures, made using black mulberry wood and housing the bones of the prehistoric-looking Orfos fish, which the artist hunted in underwater caves in Crete.
Whitten not only explored various artistic tools but also a range of mediums. Following a grant received by the Xerox Corporation in 1970, Whitten made a major discovery: dry pigment or toner needed no binder but was made permanent by applying heat. Relying heavily on the capacities of Xerox’s electrostatic printing technology, which allowed him to push traditional visual vocabularies and manipulate the idea of plane and space, the artist began applying toner directly to canvas and paper, utilizing heat lamps to set the images. With total abstraction and sophisticated restraint, ‘Xeroxed!, III’ (1975) is emblematic of Whitten’s investigative spirit of the decade.
In his paintings towards the end of the 1970s, he shifted from oil paint to acrylic. In doing so, the artist often mixed aluminium and metal powders into the paint to create different tonalities and to experiment with color, visible in works such as ‘Formal Relay I’ (1979). Yet, his works of this period retained a pared down color scheme in comparison with the bold and vibrant abstract expressionist works that came before. Citing this shift as a poignantly personal and political decision, he says, ‘I removed all spectrum colour from the studio … I reduced them down to black, white, and a range of greys. … you have to understand that in 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. The formal reasons for black and white are one thing but there are also the reasons coming out of the political situation, and I wanted to see if I could combine them.’ Mary Whitten highlights that despite works from this era being resolutely concept-driven and process-based, ‘Jack felt that the technical studies and experimentations were always working towards a goal of spirit and soul in the work. Never just the dry illustration of an idea.’
Accompanying the exhibition, our Learning program will engage a range of learners with Whitten’s work. In addition, an ‘Educators’ Evening’ will take place on Thursday 7 November and ‘Painters on Painting’ on Thursday 28 November, in which artists and tutors will facilitate a conversation with university students around Whitten’s practice.
Image: Jack Whitten in his 40 Crosby Street Studio in New York NY with paintings from the following series: ‘The Annunciation,’ ‘Ascension,’ ‘DNA,’ ‘Formal Relay,’ ‘Persian Echo,’ 1979 © Jack Whitten Estate
