#Art: Self Portrait: Entrainment (2008) #Artist: Jack Whitten
#Art: Self Portrait: Entrainment (2008)
#Artist: #JackWhitten (b. 1939/d. 2018)
#ArtMovement/Style: #Abstract #Tesserae #SculpturalPainting
Mediun: Acrylic collage and eye glass lens on canvas
74 x 58.4 x 4.4 cm (29 1/8 x 23 x 1 3/4 inches)
#DailyArt #TalkArt #Artsy
#ArtPost #FineArt #Art
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(Detail) Whitten was well-known and respected for his abstract panels that honored figures from African-American history and for his innovative use of handmade acrylic tesserae in the construction of his paintings. But the art world was stunned when it learned in 2017 that Whitten had also been making sculptures privately for over four decades. The sculptures were a highly personal endeavor undertaken during the artist’s summers in Crete with family and were not made to be sold or exhibited. Whitten stated: “The sculptures are the main influence on the painting.” Intellectually curious throughout his entire life, Whitten studied African sculptural practices and blended his findings with the Minoan and Cycladic forms found in Greece and Crete. “The Afro American Thunderbolt” melds his own history as an African-American with his adopted history of ancient Greece (his wife is of Greek heritage): it brings to mind the powerful Zeus hurling a thunderbolt while simultaneously referencing West African Kongo power figures (“nkisi”) in which metal objects are embedded into wooden forms for healing and protective purposes “The Afro American Thunderbolt” is carved from black mulberry wood (locally sourced in Crete) with copper plates attached on the ends and metal nails and objects inserted into sections of the wood. In the nkisi, the metal pieces are embedded to remember specific historical events or rites so that the power figure becomes an historical record of sorts (with the actual history perhaps known only to the craftsman). Whitten’s sculpture is set upon two tall metal bars that appear as legs – a reference, perhaps, to the Greek Zeus of Artemision statue from 460 BCE (in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens) that we looked at here in the beginning of January.
The compte sculpture, including "legs".
January's theme: Sculpture
JACK WHITTEN (1939 - 2018), “The Afro American Thunderbolt”, 1983-84. Estate of Jack Whitten.
#arthistory #art #sculpture #JackWhitten
Note by Jack Whitten of things to avoid at all cost including formalism, excessive use of color, other artists, appropriation, self pity, excess emotional baggage.
Note by Jack Whitten “TO AVOID AT ALL COST” #art #JackWhitten
Jack Whitten: The Messenger closes this week at MoMA. It may be worth the crowds if you have not seen it. While he is best known as an amazing painter, his sculptures are significant and show the influence of Kongo culture. Here are two-the yin & yang. #jackwhitten #artistsofcolor
MoMA on Sunday at the Jack Whitten exhibit
MoMA Sunday
#jackwhitten #MoMA #painting #artists #photography
The exhibition space at MoMA for the blockbuster show Jack Whitten: The Messenger.
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekCforCommunication
#JackWhitten #art
Art is the great communicator, and MoMA's current show, Jack Whitten:The Messenger, contains so many great messages. Painting on the left is "Dead Reckoning", 1980. See if before the show ends at MoMA on August 2nd.
When you still see microbial populations and communities everywhere after a week at the #GRCMicroPop
#JackWhitten #moma
Always a revelation and forever a legend #jackwhitten @themuseumofmodernart #painting #sculpture #innovation #exploration #nyartadvisor #the_apaa @the_apaa
Pink Psyche Queen 1973 Acrylic on canvas 71 × 60"
Pink Psyche Queen 1973 Acrylic on canvas 71 × 60" Detail, proper left edge, showing the clean margin of exposed, raw canvas
Gamma Group I 1975 Acrylic on canvas 83 3/4 × 72"
Gamma Group I 1975 Acrylic on canvas 83 3/4 × 72" Detail, proper right edge.
My favorite #painting s at MoMA’s #JackWhitten retrospective. Each represents an engagement with extremes of color: pink is an exceptionally difficult color to use, & here contrasting against the limit of pure black & white.
#art #contemporyart #abstractart #abstractpainting #contemporarypainting
Acrylic on canvas, 70.75” x 95.25”.
Detail, proper right edge.
#JackWhitten “Testing (Slab)”, 1972. The striations are leveled out in favor of a palpable mass of paint, as if he’s showing color as material in its truest form.
#art #painting #contemporyart #abstractart #abstractpainting #contemporarypainting
Tripping 1971 Acrylic on canvas
Tripping 1971 Acrylic on canvas Detail, proper left edge
Golden Spaces 1971 Acrylic on canvas
Golden Spaces 1971 Acrylic on canvas Detail, proper left edge
#JackWhitten at the Museum of Modern Art. Amazing #painting combing material density and ethereal color. Personal gesture is absorbed in the mechanical process of pulling his “developer” across the canvas…
#art #contemporyart #abstractart #abstractpainting #contemporarypainting
#MonksKimono (for T S M). In large #JackWhitten exhibit currently at #MoMA, #TheMessenger. #NewYorkCity #Art #MusicSky
Large scale piece dedicated to 9/11 by Jack Whitten. Large abstract mixed media piece with a dark black triangle in the middle and various pointed objects coming off of it. A textured mix of black, tan and greens and collage of textures like tires & other rubber objects
Black painting with blue circles and yellow lines emanating from it.
Jack Whitten’s piece called Stevie’s Maze. Beautiful abstract with yellows, oranges scraped in a pattern that looks like a music visualizer
One of several paintings dedicated to prominent Black figure in culture. Abstract black and white broad strokes with a mosaic in a circle of blues, red, greens. All cut up acrylic.
Incredible retrospective of Jack Whitten at MoMA going on right now. Hard to capture the beauty of some these in person. #moma #jackwhitten #nyc #art #painting
An amazing Jack Whitten exhibit at Moma in Manhattan. His work was extensive and heavily influenced by jazz & civil rights. Enjoy! #JackWhitten #Moma #jazz #civilrights #racism #nyc
Small black and grey artwork by Jack Whitten currently showing at MoMA (museum of modern art), in New York City.
#jackwhitten @moma.bsky.social
Whitten experimented with materials. Some made with powdered toner and others with powdered graphite. “Taking a risk” was a subtitle in the exhibition.
Great art lifts the spirit in dark times. Go see Jack Whitten at the Museum of Modern Art if you can.
#moma #contemporaryart #jackwhitten #art #painting
My God! That’s all I can say right now. Yesterday, I stood inside a gallery & time collapsed. Memory collapsed. The veil between the living & the gone felt tissue-thin. I thought I came to MoMA for an exhibition #JackWhitten #TheMessenger. What I found was something I didn’t know I needed: a portal.
If you are fortunate enough to find yourself in NYC between now and August 2nd, this exhibit at @moma.bsky.social seems well worth a visit. www.moma.org/calendar/exh... #JackWhitten #AbstractArt
How a civil rights activist created a new form of abstraction in art-- READ THE PREVIEW
@moma.bsky.social #JackWhitten #AbstractArt #PictureThisPostMuseums #PictureThisPostArt #NYCArt #NYCMuseums #art #museums
