Jack Whitten
Heads in Motion XII, Portrait of a Lady I, Heads XII
Heads in Motion XII, Portrait of a Lady I, Heads XII
Jack Whitten
Heads in Motion XII, Portrait of a Lady I, Heads XIII
1964
Acrylic on canvas, triptych
1. 67.3 x 54.6 cm / 26.5 x 21.5 in
2. 58.1 x 48.9 cm / 22.9 x 19.25 in
3. 61 x 50.8 cm / 24 x 20 in
Born and raised in Alabama, Jack Whitten moved to New York in 1960 to enroll in Cooper Union. He quickly entrenched in the art world moving freely between artistic circles that included Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis. Painted in 1964, the ‘Heads’ series of small, ethereal canvases mark the inception of Whitten’s innovative, fully realized practice.
Characterized by a vaguely photographic quality, grey and white forms emerge and fade elusively into the dark background. In this series, Whitten experimented with process and utilized acrylic paint for the first time, applying black and white paint to cotton canvas, upon which black fine mesh was stretched and the excess paint wiped off.
It was at this time that Whitten painted across his studio wall a self-divined directive, clearly seen in the ‘Heads’ works — ‘The image is photographic; therefore I must photograph my thoughts.’ (1)
The work titles located the nebulous abstractions as spectral faces, later dubbed the ‘ghost’ series, embodying Whitten’s material experimentation and willingness to embrace psychological content.
1. Jack Whitten quoted in an interview with Robert Storr, ‘Jack Whitten. Five Decades of Painting’, San Diego CA: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2015, p. 55.