Jack Whitten’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York showcases the artist’s remarkable body of work. The exhibition features around 175 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, and prints. Whitten sought to create “sheets of light” using paint, inspired by jazz musician John Coltrane’s “sheets of sound.” His work “Light Sheet I” (1964) exemplifies this endeavor, with an expansive pink square inset with smaller squares in shades of black and green.
One of the exhibition’s highlights is “9-11-01” (2006), a 20-foot-long painting depicting a black triangle emerging from a white ground, with plumes of smoke on either side. The piece subtly references the 9/11 tragedy and incorporates materials salvaged from the World Trade Center’s wreckage. Another standout is “Black Monolith VIII (For Maya Angelou)” (2015), part of Whitten’s “Black Monoliths” series.
The painting features an oval-shaped mass of gnarled black elements framed by acrylic chips that reflect light.
Jack Whitten at MoMA
The retrospective traces Whitten’s career from its beginnings up to his death in 2018.
Early works like “Birmingham 1964” pay tribute to Whitten’s father’s profession as a coal miner, with its black foil surface revealing a silvery underbelly. Whitten’s childhood in the Deep South during the Jim Crow era was marked by challenges, but his family’s resilience shaped his path. Works from his time at Cooper Union in New York, like “Martin Luther King’s Garden” (1968), blend political commentary with painterly techniques.
Whitten’s breakthrough came in 1970 with paintings using a tool he called the Developer. Works from this period, such as “Prime Mover” (1974), display smudged, dynamic forms that capture a sense of movement and dimensionality. The MoMA retrospective celebrates Whitten’s legacy as a profound explorer of light and abstraction, offering visitors a chance to experience the brilliance of his work.
