Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Series
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Author: Whitten, Jack
The first book to delve deeply into Jack Whitten’s Greek Alphabet paintings (1975–78), this volume examines this remarkable series, which consists of variations on abstract, black-and-white compositions and experiments in mark-making. This unprecedented publication also collects materials from Whitten's personal archives (including his own writings), along with fascinating essays and poetic reflections from curators, art historians, and writers. Specifically, the series is illuminated through essays by art historian Courtney J. Martin and Dia curators Donna De Salvo and Matilde Guidelli-Guidi. Authors Fred Moten and Gregg Bordowitz provide poetic reflections on Whitten’s art, biography and cultural importance. In his lifetime, Whitten never had the opportunity to exhibit more than a handful of these works. In publishing a significant number of these paintings together for the first time—with 40 colour plates representing the 60-some paintings in the series—'Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Series' makes possible a fuller appreciation of the formal and material permutations of Whitten’s practice. For the works in this series, Whitten employed handmade tools and techniques including the comb, imprint and frottage.Jack Whitten (1939–2018) was born in Bessemer, Alabama, studied art at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and moved to New York in 1960, where he had a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1974 and a 10-year retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1983. In 2014, a retrospective was organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, travelling to the Wexner Center in 2015 and the Walker Art Center in 2015–16. Whitten lived in Queens, New York, where he died in 2018.
ISBN 9780944521991. Dia Art Foundation. hb. 232 pages. 149 colour ills. 25.4 x 22.9 cm.
available
The first book to delve deeply into Jack Whitten’s Greek Alphabet paintings (1975–78), this volume examines this remarkable series, which consists of variations on abstract, black-and-white compositions and experiments in mark-making. This unprecedented publication also collects materials from Whitten's personal archives (including his own writings), along with fascinating essays and poetic reflections from curators, art historians, and writers. Specifically, the series is illuminated through essays by art historian Courtney J. Martin and Dia curators Donna De Salvo and Matilde Guidelli-Guidi. Authors Fred Moten and Gregg Bordowitz provide poetic reflections on Whitten’s art, biography and cultural importance. In his lifetime, Whitten never had the opportunity to exhibit more than a handful of these works. In publishing a significant number of these paintings together for the first time—with 40 colour plates representing the 60-some paintings in the series—'Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Series' makes possible a fuller appreciation of the formal and material permutations of Whitten’s practice. For the works in this series, Whitten employed handmade tools and techniques including the comb, imprint and frottage.Jack Whitten (1939–2018) was born in Bessemer, Alabama, studied art at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and moved to New York in 1960, where he had a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1974 and a 10-year retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1983. In 2014, a retrospective was organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, travelling to the Wexner Center in 2015 and the Walker Art Center in 2015–16. Whitten lived in Queens, New York, where he died in 2018.
ISBN 9780944521991. Dia Art Foundation. hb. 232 pages. 149 colour ills. 25.4 x 22.9 cm.
available