Physis II (Dedicated to the Memory of David Budd)
Physis II (Dedicated to the Memory of David Budd)
Jack Whitten
Physis II (Dedicated to the Memory of David Budd)
1991
Acrylic on canvas
40.6 x 40.6 cm / 16 x 16 in
53.4 x 53.4 x 5.7 cm / 21 x 21 x 2 1/4 in (framed)
Over the years Jack Whitten made works in homage to a wide range of people whom he admired, from Miles Davis to Malcolm X to his own mother. Whitten strove to capture the essence of his subjects in these symbolic abstractions and conceptualized the works as 'gifts.' The artist made ‘Physis II (Dedicated to the Memory of David Budd)’ in honor of artist David Budd who passed away that year. Originally from Florida, Budd become a member of the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York, experimenting with different possibilities of abstraction throughout his career. As Whitten recounted in his studio notes: ‘David Budd gave me valuable information; information that I could not understand at that time and obvious he did not understand, but he felt it! Budd is right + I think that ‘space as object is the key!’’ (1) (Studio Notes, 29 November 2006)
‘Physis II (Dedicated to the Memory of David Budd)’ is composed of Whitten's hallmark 'tesserae,' or tessellated squares. Whitten is distinctive in his sculptural or even architectural approach to acrylic paint. To make the tesserae he lifted the paint off its support, sliced it into ribbons and laid the three-dimensional ribbons onto a wet field of paint, a process inspired by ancient mosaics. When the tiles are laid at irregular angles, mosaics become particularly effective in catching and reflecting light.
1.) Jack Whitten on 29 November 2006, in Katy Siegel (ed.), ‘Jack Whitten. Notes from the Woodshed’, Zurich/CH: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018, p. 288.