Jack Whitten

American painter, 1939–2018

BiographyJack Whitten attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and Southern University in Baton Rouge before moving to New York to attend Cooper Union in 1960. Initially influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Whitten began experimenting with the application of paint in the 1970s. His methods incorporated objects to drag the paint across the canvas surface or casting acrylic to create texture. In this way, Whitten fuses painting and sculpture to create three-dimensional objects that challenge traditional notions of painting. The artist has been the subject of countless solo exhibitions and his work is in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

Person TypeIndividual

Terms