Jack Whitten
Transmission ‘A’ #4
Transmission ‘A’ #4
Jack Whitten
Transmission ‘A’ #4
2013
Toner on white wove paper
53.3 x 48.3 cm / 21 x 19 in
62.4 x 56.4 cm / 24 5/8 x 22 1/4 in (framed)
Drawing was an integral part of Jack Whitten’s artistic and technical maturation throughout the different phases of his evolution as an artist. Working on paper fundamentally served as means of research, both of ideas and the multidimensionality of vision. As he would later describe in 2014, “Drawing is the skeleton of what I do in painting.” (1)
Rather than concerning himself with the modernist notion of progression in relation to the advancement of time, Whitten found it more advantageous to educate himself by going back in time. His tautological approach to learning is made manifest in ‘Transmission’. Perceiving the body as a transmitter of cosmic data, one can interpret these drawings as an illumination of the relationship between the stimuli that comprises space-time and their engagements with the human brain. As an artist, he made it his prerogative to adapt the cosmic vibrations and render them as ingredients for his creative production.
1.) Jack Whitten, Studio Log, November 2014.