STANLEY WHITNEY

A master colourist, Whitney takes an exploratory and lyrical approach to painting. Each of his canvases is structured as a loose grid of rectilinear blocks in three or four rows. Laying down one vivid colour at a time, the artist establishes relationships between each area, its neighbours, and the composition as a whole, employing gestural brushwork to juxtapose hues applied with varied degrees of opacity. Between each row are linear bands that ground the composition and sometimes extend the tones of individual blocks. Inspired by jazz, Whitney defines a space within which to improvise, each painting setting a unique group of chromatic and spatial harmonies in motion.

Peaches (2023) is dominated by the warm pinks and oranges suggested by its title, which stand in contrast to the cooler blues, blacks, and greens with which they are paired. Spanning ten feet in width, As Wild as the World 2 (2023) reveals the visual impact of scale in conjunction with Whitney’s iterative technique.High Hopes (2024) is a study in contrasts, with complementary pairs of red/green and orange/blue pressing against one another. The loose brushstrokes and more muted tones at the top and bottom of A Tribute to Billie (2024) establish a sonorous composition that evokes the expressive power and vulnerability of its namesake, Billie Holiday.

With an unwavering commitment to abstraction, Whitney uses titles that resonate with his inspirations: art and architecture, poetry and music, contemporary issues and observations. On the title of this exhibition, he notes: ‘I first read this line in a poem in Rome in 1994 and used it as the title of a painting that year. The line stayed with me, and I ended up using it for the title of another painting in 2004. Now, thirty years later, those words seem to resonate with the time we’re living in more than ever.’

By the Love of Those Unloved coincides with How High the Moon at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the first retrospective to trace the evolution of Whitney’s abstractions over forty-five years. On view in Buffalo, New York, through May 26, 2024, the exhibition will travel to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2024–25), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2025). Spanning the entirety of Whitney’s career, How High the Moon includes paintings, drawings, prints, and sketchbooks.

Press release courtesy Gagosian