Stanley Whitney. By the Love of Those Unloved

About

A master colorist, Whitney takes an exploratory and lyrical approach to painting. Each of his canvases is structured as a loose grid of rectilinear blocks in three or four rows. Laying down one vivid color at a time, the artist establishes relationships between each area, its neighbors, and the composition as a whole, employing gestural brushwork to juxtapose hues applied with varied degrees of opacity. Between each row are linear bands that ground the composition and sometimes extend the tones of individual blocks. Inspired by jazz, Whitney defines a space within which to improvise, each painting setting a unique group of chromatic and spatial harmonies in motion.

Peaches (2023) is dominated by the warm pinks and oranges suggested by its title, which stand in contrast to the cooler blues, blacks, and greens with which they are paired. Spanning ten feet in width, As Wild as the World 2 (2023) reveals the visual impact of scale in conjunction with Whitney’s iterative technique. High Hopes (2024) is a study in contrasts, with complementary pairs of red/green and orange/blue pressing against one another. The loose brushstrokes and more muted tones at the top and bottom of Tribute to Billie (2024) establish a sonorous composition that evokes the expressive power and vulnerability of its namesake, Billie Holiday.