{"data":{"id":"4099","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4099,"topgoose_id":242,"tms_id":4099,"display_name":"Jack Whitten","sort_name":"Whitten Jack","display_date":"1939–2018","begin_date":"1939","end_date":"2018","biography":"\u003cp\u003eShortly after graduating from Cooper Union in 1964, Jack Whitten met \u003ca href=\"/artists/339\"\u003eWillem de Kooning\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/artists/707\"\u003eFranz Kline\u003c/a\u003e, and other lions of Abstract Expressionism. Galvanized, like many of his contemporaries, by that idiom, he produced gestural, expressive paintings in the 1960s that were often inspired by the tumultuous sociopolitical events of the decade. Whitten’s work became more abstract and process-based in the 1970s: he began manipulating layers of wet paint on canvas with implements that included Afro combs, carpenters’ saws, rakes, and squeegees (including one specially devised squeegee that was twelve feet long). The artist explained that his technique was “a physical way of getting light into the painted surface without relying on the mixture of color.”\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/8753\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeta Group Number One\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, from\nthis period, is a field of black and white,\nmostly regular, finely ridged lines.\nHowever, incident and accident rupture\nthe geometric uniformity: lines veer off in\ndiagonal directions; certain strands\nare thicker than others; lighter blotches\nreveal areas where paint is distributed\nmore thinly. Whitten here imparts the\naction painters’ esteem for chance to the\nrigor of contemporaneous geometric\nabstraction and even Minimalism, achieving\na composition that, despite its reductive\npalette, seems to pulsate with energy.\nWhile emphatically palpable, this painting\nalso evokes other, less immediately\nmaterial mediums—from black-and-white\nphotography to scratchy film leader to\ntelevision static. Such experimentation with\nsurface effect grew bolder in the 1980s,\nand by the 1990s Whitten was incorporating\nbits of hardened acrylic into his canvases,\nusing them like mosaics. His works,\nwhich also include drawings and collages,\noften pay tribute to deceased family\nmembers and friends and memorialize\ntraumatic events.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500077661","wikidata_id":"Q6115781","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:34:35.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-26T07:02:38.724-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4099/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4099/exhibitions"}}}}