Chinese Sincerity
To be called a “painter’s painter” is a mark of respect any painter would be happy to receive.
Alexander Gray, owner of the gallery that represents African-American artist Jack Whitten’s work, has said, “The respect of other artists is more important than red dots.”
Whitten – born in 1939 in Bessemer, Ala. – is just such a “painter’s painter,” an artist who has taken the medium to new innovative areas through long and thoughtful process. Five Decades of Painting, an exhibition of his work organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, is on display at the Wexner Center for the Arts through Aug. 2.
“We’re thrilled to bring this extraordinary exhibition to Ohio,” says Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin. “It’s fair to say that for nearly 50 years, Whitten’s achievements have been known and appreciated primarily by art-world ‘insiders.’ This expansive survey of his life’s work reveals to a larger public the stunning originality, depth and power of his practice. Whether collaged, inlaid, chiseled, laminated or poured, Whitten’s paintings are a hybrid medium solely of his own conception, and they are riveting.”
Acrylic paint was a fairly new medium when Whitten began working with it in the late 1960s. Fast-drying acrylic uses water as a solvent, and it can be manipulated in many ways that oil paint should not. Watercolor thin layers and massive build-up of the paint surface are all possible.
Many mediums using the clear polymer base. mixed with marble dust, glass beads and sand, for example, are readily available today. Whitten, and painters like him, developed versions of these and many more, early on and on their own.
In an inspired pairing, you can also enjoy Catherine Opie: Portraits and Landscapes at the Wexner Center through Aug. 2. Ohio-born Opie is internationally recognized for her photographs.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
