JACK WHITTEN

Focusing on Whitten’s paintings and works on paper from the 1970s, this exhibition showcases a juncture in the artist’s painting career, which saw him reject the gestural brushstrokes of abstract expressionism in favor of experimental processes and materials. This includes rare works from Whitten’s landmark Greek Alphabet series (1975 – 1978), which was the focus of a dedicated exhibition at Dia Beacon, New York NY (2022 – 2023), consisting of variations of abstract, monochrome compositions and investigations into mark-making with handmade tools and techniques, including the comb, imprinting and frottage.

During the 1970s, Whitten’s experiments with the materiality of paint reached a climax; removing a thick slab of acrylic paint from its support, the artist realised that the medium could be coaxed into the form of an independent object. He used this mode of experimentation to challenge pre-existing notions of dimensionality in painting, repeatedly layering slices of acrylic ribbon on uneven fields of wet paint to mimic the application of mosaic tessarae onto wet masonry. He also relied heavily on the capacities of Xerox’s electrostatic printing technology, which allowed him to push traditional visual vocabulary and manipulate the idea of plane and space. Moreover, he removed the use of pens and brushes and began using unconventional tools for drawings and paintings such as a carpenter’s saw blade and an afro-comb. Whitten named these new tools ‘processors’ or ‘developers,’ reiterating the connections to photo-processing; these enabled him to create abstract constructions formed by one sweeping motion.