Jack Whitten

{{Infobox artist

| name =

| birth_date = December 5, 1939

| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|1|20|1939|12|5}}

| nationality = American

| known_for = Painting, sculpture

| awards = National Medal of Arts

| image = Jack Whitten Brooklyn Museum.png

| spouse = {{marriage |Florence Squires|||end=div}}

| children = 2

| caption = Whitten in 2017 at the Brooklyn Museum

| alma mater = Cooper Union (BFA)

}}

Jack Whitten (December 5, 1939 – January 20, 2018) was an American abstract painter and sculptor, who was part of the Black Abstractionism canon. According to the Museum of Modern Art, he "invented art-making techniques that were the first of their kind."[https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5785 Jack Whitten. The Messenger.] MoMA. Retrieved May 28, 2025. In 2016, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts.

Early life and education

Jack Whitten was born December 5, 1939 in Bessemer, Alabama, to Mose Whitten and Annie B. Cunningham. His father was a coal miner who died when he was eight years old.Cooper Union (February 7, 2018). [https://cooper.edu/art/news/memoriam-jack-whitten-renowned-artist-and-teacher In Memoriam: Jack Whitten, Renowned Artist and Teacher]. His mother was a seamstress who eventually founded a private kindergarten.

His first exposure to art was through his mother's first husband, Monroe Cross, a sign painter. He inherited Cross' tools, and as a teenager, he worked painting price tags for local stores. Whitten attended Carver Junior High School and the former Dunbar High School.Whitten, Jack (July 13, 2018). [https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/13/who-are-you-jack-whitten/ Who Are You, Jack Whitten?] The Paris Review.

In addition to art, he played tenor saxophone in a high school band, the Dunbar Jazzettes.

Planning a career as an army doctor, Whitten entered pre-medical studies at Tuskegee Institute from 1957 to 1959.{{cite book |first=Steven |last=Otfinoski |title=African Americans in the Visual Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcWHdpRoDkUC&pg=PA222 |date=14 May 2014 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0777-6 |pages=222–}}{{cite book |first=Paul William |last=Richelson |title=Alabama impact: contemporary artists with Alabama ties |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PopIAQAAIAAJ |date=1 March 1995 |publisher=Mobile Museum of Art |isbn=9781885820013}} He joined the ROTC, like his older brother, and used the money that he earned from painting store tags to support himself through college. An architecture professor suggested that he should attend Cooper Union to study art. While at Tuskegee, he traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak and to meet him during the Montgomery bus boycott and was deeply moved by his vision for a changed America.

In 1960, Whitten went to Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to begin studying art and became involved in Civil Rights demonstrations there. He participated in a march from downtown Baton Rouge to the state capitol. His artistic ability led him to be in charge of producing the signs and slogans to be used at that demonstration.{{cite web |last1=Sung |first1=Victoria |title=Stories of the Soul: A Farewell to Jack Whitten |url=https://walkerart.org/magazine/jack-whitten-in-his-own-words |website=Walker Reader |publisher=Walker Art Center |date=29 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2025}}

Whitten believed strongly in Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent approach. However, witnessing the violent reactions from the segregationists made him realize that if he remained in the South, he would turn violent himself.{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-last=DeBerry |interviewer-first=Linda |title=An Interview with artist Jack Whitten |url=https://crystalbridges.org/blog/an-interview-with-artist-jack-whitten/ |website=Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art |date=23 January 2018 |access-date=May 7, 2019}} In 1960, he followed his Tuskegee professor's advice, and moved to New York City. He enrolled at Cooper Union in the fall of 1960, and was the only Black student in his class. As an undergraduate, Whitten began to carve wood and started creating sculptures.{{sfnp|Baum|2018|p=139|ps=none}} He met his future second wife Mary Staikos, a fellow art student, during his time at Cooper Union.{{sfnp|Siegel|2018|p=13|ps=none}} He graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine art in 1964. After graduating, he remained in New York as a working artist, heavily influenced by the abstract expressionists and Black abstractionists then dominating the art community, especially Willem de Kooning and Robert Blackburn, who introduced him to Romare Bearden, who introduced him to Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis.

Life and career

Shortly after leaving Cooper Union, Whitten had the opportunity to meet other Black artists, including Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis, while he remained in New York to start his art career. In 1964, Whitten completed his first formal series of paintings after university, his Heads series, an exploration of the possibilities of overlap between painting and photography.{{sfnp|Kanjo|2015|p=20|ps=none}}{{sfnp|Beckstette|2019|p=45|ps=none}} Created by suspending a painted canvas between two additional pieces of stretched fabric, these paintings primarily comprised a central area of translucent white pigment against black, resembling an abstracted face or head floating in space.{{sfnp|Kanjo|2015|p=21|ps=none}}

Whitten's art style was abstract, and he referred to his work as having "truth" and "soul". Much of Whitten's artwork was inspired by his experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. Whitten concluded that slavery obstructed the culture of people of color, and believed that it was his destiny to restore the culture through his pieces.

Whitten's earliest paintings date back to the 1960s. A large portion of Whitten's artwork had a feathery, soft effect, which Whitten achieved by placing a nylon mesh fabric over his wet acrylic paintings. Whitten also used a T-shaped tool, which he called the "developer". Whitten would move the tool across the surface of his art in one single motion. This technique was used to represent one point being related to another.

After his brother's death in an apartment fire in New York in 1966, Whitten made a painting in his brother's honor, the first of a series of memorial paintings dedicated to friends, family, and notable public figures.{{sfnp|Beckstette|2019|pp=51; 61, note 9|ps=none}} Whitten and Staikos married in 1968.{{sfnp|Siegel|2018|p=13|ps=none}} In 1969, Whitten began traveling annually to the Greek island of Crete with Staikos, a Greek-American.{{sfnp|Kanjo|2015|p=32|ps=none}} He eventually acquired a studio on the island which he used for his sculpture practice.

File:Black Monolith I, 1988, Jack Whitten at Glenstone 2023.jpg in 2023]]

One of Whitten's most famous bodies of work is his Black Monolith Series. Most of the work in this series was a homage or tribute to black activists, politicians, and artists. The two best-known works from this series includes Whitten's Black Monolith III For Barbara Jordan, 1998{{cite web |title=Black Monolith III for Barbara Jordan |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/768447 |website=The MET |access-date=May 7, 2019}} and Black Monolith II, Homage to Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man, 1994.{{cite web |title=Black Monolith II (For Ralph Ellison) |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/216671 |website=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=May 7, 2019}}

Whitten's work was featured in the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972. The Whitney mounted a solo exhibition of his paintings in 1974. Solo exhibitions of his work have also been held at numerous museums, galleries, and universities, including a 10-year retrospective in 1983 at the Studio Museum in Harlem and an exhibition of memorial paintings in 2008 at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia.{{Cite magazine |last=Cochran |first=Rebecca Dimling |title=Jack Whitten at The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/jack-whitten-185586 |access-date=2 March 2025 |magazine=Artforum |date=8 May 2008 |language=en-US}}

From 1974 to 1995, Whitten was a professor of painting at Cooper Union, his alma mater.

In 1974, Whitten participated in a residency at the Xerox corporation, giving him access to the then-new technology required for xerography printing. After the residency, Whitten experimented with a range of drawings made with toner.{{sfnp|De Salvo|2023|p=41|ps=none}}

Throughout his career, Whitten concerned himself with the techniques and materials of painting and the relationship of artworks to their inspirations. At times he pursued quickly-applied gestural techniques akin to photography or printmaking, while at others his deliberate and constructive hand is evident. The New York Times labeled him the father of a "new abstraction."

File:9.11.01, 2006, Jack Whitten at BMA 2022.jpeg in 2022]]

When the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center occurred, Whitten was at his studio on Lispenard Street in Tribeca.{{cite web|website=Artnet News |first=Elisabeth |last=Kley |url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/kley/jack-whitten-9-15-11.asp |title=Jack Whitten: From Garbage To Gems |access-date=2 March 2025 |url-status=live |date=15 September 2011 |oclc=959715797 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929235315/https://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/kley/jack-whitten-9-15-11.asp |archive-date=29 September 2011 }} In the following years, he constructed a monumental painting with ashes embedded in it as a memorial of the day.{{cite news |first=Mary |last=Abbe |url=http://www.startribune.com/unmasked-the-all-american-art-of-jack-whitten-opens-at-walker-art-center/326366841/ |title=Unmasked: All-American art of Jack Whitten opens at Walker Art Center |newspaper=Minnesota Star Tribune |date=14 September 2015 |access-date=2 March 2025 |oclc=43369847 }}

President Barack Obama awarded Whitten the 2015 National Medal of Arts Award.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arts.gov/news/2016/president-obama-award-national-medals-arts|title=President Obama to Award National Medals of Arts {{!}} NEA|website=www.arts.gov|access-date=2016-09-22|archive-date=2017-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823204350/https://www.arts.gov/news/2016/president-obama-award-national-medals-arts|url-status=dead}}

Exhibitions

In 2013, curator Katy Siegel organized the exhibition Light Years: Jack Whitten, 1971-73 at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The exhibition featured many works created by Whitten between 1971 and 1973 which had never been exhibited before.{{cite magazine |last=Williams |first=Gregory |title=Gregory Williams on Jack Whitten |magazine=Artforum |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/jack-whitten-3-202452/ |url-access=limited |date=December 2013 |access-date=25 February 2025 |volume=52 |issue=4 |oclc=20458258 }} In 2014, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego hosted a 50–year retrospective exhibition of Whitten's work;{{cite magazine |last=Muchnic |first=Suzanne |title=Jack Whitten at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |date=December 2014 |page=120 |volume=113 |issue=11 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/jack-whitten-at-museum-of-contemporary-art-san-diego-3175/ |magazine=ARTnews |oclc=2392716 }} the show later traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. As part of his Walker engagement, Whitten wrote an Artist Op-Ed on racism and "the role of art in times of unspeakable violence."{{cite web |first=Jack |last=Whitten |url=https://walkerart.org/magazine/jack-whitten-art-violence |title=A Circle of Blood |website=Walker Reader |publisher=Walker Art Center |date=3 December 2015 |access-date=2 March 2025 }}

In 2018, the Baltimore Museum of Art hosted the retrospective exhibition Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963–2016, primarily focused on Whitten's sculptural practice. Organized at the end of Whitten's life and opened shortly after his passing, the exhibition also traveled to the Met Breuer in New York{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |author-link=Roberta Smith |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/arts/design/jack-whitten-review-met-breuer-sculpture.html |title=Revealing a Secret Art Life: A Painter's Sculptures |date=6 September 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=25 February 2025 |url-access=limited |oclc=1645522 }} and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.{{cite news |last1=Glentzer |first1=Molly |title=The works of artists Sally Mann and Jack Whitten are steeped in America’s racial history |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/theater/article/The-works-of-Southern-artists-Sally-Mann-and-Jack-13785254.php |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=22 April 2019 |oclc=30348909}} In 2019, the Hamburger Bahnhof–Museum für Gegenwart – part of the Berlin National Gallery – hosted the retrospective Jack Whitten: Jack's Jacks, Whitten's first solo exhibition in a European museum.{{cite magazine |last=Herbert |first=Martin |title=Jack Whitten at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin |magazine=ArtReview |url=https://artreview.com/ar-summer-2019-review-jack-whitten/ |access-date=2 March 2025 |oclc=28239694 |date=Summer 2019 |volume=71 |issue=5 }}

In March 2025, the Museum of Modern Art, led by curator Michelle Kuo, presented Jack Whitten: The Messenger,{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=M.H. |title=Seven Years After Jack Whitten’s Death, His Studio Remains Nearly Untouched |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/t-magazine/jack-whitten-moma-studio-queens.html |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=T: The New York Times Style Magazine |date=27 February 2025 |oclc=56425907 |url-access=limited}} the first monographic exhibit to showcase the entire range of Whitten's artistic media, including sculpture, painting, and printmaking.{{cite web |last1=Rabb |first1=Maxwell |title=Jack Whitten’s first comprehensive retrospective will be presented at MoMA |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-jack-whittens-first-comprehensive-retrospective-will-presented-moma |website=Artsy |access-date=2 March 2025 |date=25 July 2024}}

Art market

Whitten was represented by Hauser & Wirth (2016–2018), Alexander Gray Associates (2007–2016), and Zeno X Gallery.{{cite magazine |first=Alex |last=Greenberger |date=15 April 2016 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/hauser-wirth-adds-jack-whitten-to-its-roster-plans-show-for-spring-2017-6170/ |title=Hauser & Wirth Adds Jack Whitten to Its Roster, Plans Show for Spring 2017 |magazine=ARTnews |oclc=2392716 |access-date=2 March 2025 }}

Personal life

Whitten married Florence Squires in the early 1960s and divorced soon after. He remarried to Mary Staikos in 1968, whom he had met as a student at Cooper Union.{{sfnp|Siegel|2018|p=13|ps=none}} He had two children from his two marriages, both girls.

Whitten died in Manhattan at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on January 20, 2018, at age 78 of complications from leukemia.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/jack-whitten-a-neglected-artist-who-embraced-african-and-expressionist-art/2018/01/22/f9df8190-ffa8-11e7-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html |work=The Washington Post |title=Jack Whitten: once neglected artist lately the toast of the art world |access-date=24 February 2025 |last=Smee |first=Sebastian |author-link=Sebastian Smee |date=22 January 2018 }}{{Cite news |url=http://www.artnews.com/2018/01/21/jack-whitten-beloved-painter-abstract-cosmologies-dies-78/ |title=Jack Whitten, Beloved Painter of Abstract Cosmologies, Dies at 78 |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |date=21 January 2018 |work=ARTnews |language=en-US |access-date=24 February 2025}} Whitten and his second wife Mary resided in Queens, New York, at the time of his death.{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Jack Whitten, Artist of Wide-Ranging Curiosity, Dies at 78 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/jack-whitten-artist-of-wide-ranging-curiosity-dies-at-78.html |access-date=24 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=23 January 2018 |url-access=limited}}

Notable works in public collections

Homage to Malcolm (1965); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{cite web |title=Homage to Malcolm |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/768411 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=3 March 2025}}
NY Battle Ground (1967); Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=NY Battle Ground |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/442194? |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
John Lennon Altarpiece (1968); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=John Lennon Altarpiece |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2020.351/ |website=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Slip Zone (1971); Dallas Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Slip Zone |url=https://dma.org/art/collection/object/5334550 |website=Dallas Museum of Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Pink Psyche Queen (1973); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago{{cite web |title=Pink Psyche Queen |url=https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/jack-whitten/3319-pink-psyche-queen |website=Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Chinese Sincerity (1974); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego{{cite web |title=Chinese Sincerity |url=https://collection.mcasd.org/objects/7583/chinese-sincerity? |website=Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Siberian Salt Grinder (1974); Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=Siberian Salt Grinder |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/142586? |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Sorcerer's Apprentice (1974); Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Sorcerer’s Apprentice |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/47112 |website=Whitney Museum |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Sphinx Alley II (1975); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Sphinx Alley II |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.209643.html |website=National Gallery of Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Epsilon Group I (1976); Dallas Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Epsilon Group I |url=https://dma.org/art/collection/object/5334551 |website=Dallas Museum of Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Epsilon Group II (1977); Tate, London{{cite web |title=Epsilon Group II |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whitten-epsilon-group-ii-t13803 |website=Tate |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Khee I (1978); Studio Museum in Harlem, New York{{cite web |title=Khee I |url=https://www.studiomuseum.org/artworks/khee-i |website=Studio Museum in Harlem |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Khee II (1978); Art Institute of Chicago{{cite web |title=Khee II |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/218612/khee-ii |website=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Black Monolith I, A Tribute to James Baldwin (1988); Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland{{cite web |title=Black Monolith I, A Tribute to James Baldwin |url=https://www.glenstone.org/artworks/black-monolith-i-a-tribute-to-james-baldwin |website=Glenstone |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Natural Selection (1994); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston{{cite web |title=Natural Selection |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/151328/natural-selection? |website=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |access-date=5 March 2025}}
9.11.01 (2006); Baltimore Museum of Art{{cite web |title=9.11.01 |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/94737/91101? |website=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Atopolis: For Édouard Glissant (2014); Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=Atopolis: For Édouard Glissant |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/214864? |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=5 March 2025}}
Black Monolith XI, Six Kinky Strings: For Chuck Berry (2017); Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland{{cite web |title=Black Monolith XI, Six Kinky Strings: For Chuck Berry |url=https://www.glenstone.org/artworks/black-monolith-xi-six-kinky-strings-for-chuck-berry |website=Glenstone |access-date=5 March 2025}}

Publications

{{cite magazine |title=The Refactoring of Painting: A Talk by Jack Whitten |magazine=Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire |volume=16 |issue=2 |date=Fall 2016 |id={{ProQuest|1855776880}} |pages=62–69, 142 |last=Whitten |first=Jack |oclc=34971120}}
{{cite book |title=Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed |last=Whitten |first=Jack |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Katy |oclc=1041227878 |isbn=9783906915173 |location=Zurich |publisher=Hauser & Wirth |date=2018 }}
{{cite book |last=Whitten |first=Jack |title=Odyssey: Jack Whitten, Sculpture 1963–2017 |date=2018 |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Katy |isbn=9781941366172 |oclc=1022977718 |location=Baltimore / New York |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art / Gregory R. Miller & Co. |chapter=Why Do I Carve Wood? |pages=36–39 }}

Citations and references

=Citations=

=Cited references=

{{cite book |last=Baum |first=Kelly |title=Odyssey: Jack Whitten, Sculpture 1963–2017 |date=2018 |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Katy |isbn=9781941366172 |oclc=1022977718 |location=Baltimore / New York |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art / Gregory R. Miller & Co. |chapter=Continental Drift: The Sculptures of Jack Whitten |pages=138–145 }}
{{cite book |last=Beckstette |first=Sven |editor1-last=Kittelmann |editor1-first=Udo |editor2-last=Beckstette |editor2-first=Sven |title=Jack Whitten: Jack's Jacks |date=2019 |location=Berlin / Munich |publisher=Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart / Prestel Publishing |isbn=9783791358628 |oclc=1112503550 |language=en, de |chapter=Extending the Meaning of Abstraction: Jack Whitten's Work in the Gap between Form and Content |pages=45–63 }}
{{cite book |last=De Salvo |first=Donna |author-link=Donna De Salvo |chapter='Gray is Power': Jack Whitten's Xerox Project |pages=41–51 |editor1-last=De Salvo |editor1-first=Donna |editor2-last=Guidelli-Guidi |editor2-first=Matilde |editor3-last=O'Dwyer |editor3-first=Deirdre |title=Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Paintings |isbn=9780944521991 |oclc=1374494397 |location=New York |publisher=Dia Art Foundation |date=2023 }}
{{cite book |title=Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting |last=Kanjo |first=Kathryn |chapter=Facing Abstraction |date=2015 |publisher=Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |oclc=910702740 |isbn=9780934418744 |pages=18–39 }}
{{cite book |title=Odyssey: Jack Whitten, Sculpture 1963–2017 |date=2018 |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Katy |isbn=9781941366172 |oclc=1022977718 |location=Baltimore / New York |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art / Gregory R. Miller & Co. |chapter=Polytropos |pages=12–27 }}

=Articles=

{{cite magazine |last=Auslander |first=Philip |title=Jack Whitten |magazine=Artforum |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/jack-whitten-2-199643/ |url-access=limited |date=September 2008 |volume=47 |issue=1 |access-date=25 February 2025 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Bourland |first=Ian |magazine=frieze |date=24 January 2018 |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/jack-whitten-1939-2018 |title=Jack Whitten (1939–2018) |url-access=limited |oclc=32711926 |access-date=5 March 2025 }}
{{cite news |last=Budick |first=Ariella |work=Financial Times |title=The writing on the wall: Jack Whitten |id={{ProQuest|2793830723}} |oclc=60638918 |date=4 March 2023 |page=12 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Civin |first=Marcus |title=Jack Whitten |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/jack-whitten-6-240361/ |magazine=Artforum |access-date=5 March 2025 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Corwin |first=William |magazine=The Brooklyn Rail |date=November 2018 |title=Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963–2017 |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2018/11/artseen/Odyssey-Jack-Whitten-Sculpture-1963-2017/ |access-date=5 March 2025 |oclc=64199099 }}
{{cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |author-link=Holland Cotter |title=Art in Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/26/arts/art-in-review-742492.html |work=The New York Times |date=26 June 1992 |access-date=25 February 2025 |oclc=1645522 |url-access=limited }}
{{cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |author-link=Holland Cotter |title=Jack Whitten |date=3 October 2013 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/arts/design/jack-whitten.html |access-date=25 February 2025 |oclc=1645522 |url-access=limited }}
{{cite magazine |last=Coxhead |first=Gabriel |date=December 2017 |volume=69 |issue=9 |magazine=ArtReview |url=https://artreview.com/ar-december-2017-review-jack-whitten/ |title=More Dimensions Than You Know: Jack Whitten, 1979–1989 |oclc=28239694 |access-date=5 March 2025 }}
{{cite news |last=D'Souza |first=Aruna |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/arts/design/jack-whitten-dia-beacon.html |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |url-access=limited |oclc=1645522 |date=28 December 2022 |title=Jack Whitten's 'Lost Chapter,' Now at Dia:Beacon }}
{{cite news |last=Elujoba |first=Yinka |title=Revealing Jack Whitten’s Secret Self |date=21 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |access-date=25 February 2025 |oclc=1645522 |url-access=limited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/arts/design/whitten-hauser-Black-memory.html }}
{{cite news |last=Fox |first=Catherine |title=Visual Arts & Architecture: Portrait of artist emerges |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |url=https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/visual-arts-architecture-portrait-artist-emerges/ITKEWUXjpOikzA20JXMNJI/ |url-access=subscription |date=15 June 2009 |access-date=24 February 2025 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Gibson |first=Eric |title=Jack Whitten's Ritual Objects |id={{ProQuest|2135499256}} |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=45–48 |date=November 2018 |magazine=The New Criterion |oclc=8672257}}
{{cite magazine |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |magazine=ARTnews |title=An Old-School Painter Adapts to a New World Order: Jack Whitten’s 50-Year Evolution |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/an-old-school-painter-adapts-to-a-new-world-order-jack-whittens-fifty-year-evolution-5632/ |date=19 January 2016 |access-date=2 March 2025 |oclc=2392716 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Kuo |first=Michelle |author-link=Michelle Kuo |title=Artist's Portfolio: Jack Whitten |magazine=Artforum |date=February 2012 |volume=50 |issue=6 |url=https://www.artforum.com/features/artists-portfolio-jack-whitten-199360/ |url-access=limited |access-date=24 February 2025 |oclc=20458258 }}
{{cite news |last=Mitter |first=Siddhartha |display-authors=etal |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/arts/design/3-art-gallery-shows-to-see-right-now.html |title=3 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now |date=6 January 2021 |access-date=25 February 2025 |url-access=limited |oclc=1645522 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Mobilio |first=Albert |title=Touch Wood: Jack Whitten's sculpture evidences the subtle magic of the artist's hand |magazine=Bookforum |volume=25 |issue=3 |date=September–November 2018 |id={{ProQuest|2097997301}} |oclc=757565508}}
{{cite magazine |last=Moyer |first=Carrie |author-link=Carrie Moyer |magazine=The Brooklyn Rail |date=October 2009 |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2009/10/artseen/jack-whitten/ |access-date=24 February 2025 |title=Jack Whitten |oclc=64199099 }}
{{cite web |last=Ober |first=Cara |title=Jack Whitten's Secret Self |website=Hyperallergic |url=https://hyperallergic.com/449771/jack-whittens-secret-self/ |date=6 July 2018 |access-date=5 March 2025 |oclc=881810209 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Ostrow |first=Saul |author-link=Saul Ostrow |title=Process, Image and Elegy |work=Art in America |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/archives-process-image-elegy-2-63548/ |date=April 2008 |volume=96 |issue=4 |access-date=24 February 2025 |oclc=1514286 }}
{{cite news |last1=Plagens |first1=Peter |title='Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture' Review: Biography at the Forefront |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/odyssey-jack-whitten-sculpture-review-biography-at-the-forefront-1526401192 |access-date=5 March 2025 |work=The Wall Street Journal |url-access=subscription |date=15 May 2018 |oclc=781541372}}
{{cite magazine |url=https://www.artforum.com/features/the-whitney-annual-part-i-210077/ |magazine=Artforum |access-date=25 February 2025 |date=April 1972 |volume=10 |issue=8 |last=Ratcliff |first=Carter |title=The Whitney Annual, Part I |oclc=1514286 |url-access=limited |pages=28–32 }}
{{cite news |title=Art: Francisco Oller, Puerto Rico Glimpsed |last=Raynor |first=Vivien |author-link=Vivien Raynor |date=10 February 1984 |work=The New York Times |access-date=25 February 2025 |oclc=1645522 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/10/arts/art-francisco-oller-puerto-rico-glimpsed.html |url-access=limited }}
{{cite news |last=Raynor |first=Vivien |author-link=Vivien Raynor |title=Art; In 2 Shows, a Strong Tactile Quality |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/30/nyregion/art-in-2-shows-a-strong-tactile-quality.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=25 February 2025 |url-access=limited |oclc=1645522 |date=30 December 1990 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Reed |first=David |author-link=David Reed (artist) |title=New Possibilities--'The Greek Alphabet Paintings' of Jack Whitten |magazine=The Brooklyn Rail |date=October 2023 |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2023/10/criticspage/New-Possibilities-The-Greek-Alphabet-Paintings-of-Jack-Whitten/ |access-date=2 March 2025 |oclc=64199099 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Schwabsky |first=Barry |author-link=Barry Schwabsky |magazine=Artforum |title=Jack Whitten |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/jack-whitten-5-213652/ |date=November 1994 |volume=33 |issue=3 |oclc=20458258 |access-date=25 February 2025 |url-access=limited }}
{{cite magazine |last=Smith |first=Roberta |author-link=Roberta Smith |title=Elliott Lloyd, Gary Smith, Jack Whitten, Carol Engelson, Stuart Hitch, Gary Tenenbaum |magazine=Artforum |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/elliott-lloyd-gary-smith-jack-whitten-carol-engelson-stuart-hitch-gary-tenenbaum-232458/ |url-access=limited |access-date=25 February 2025 |date=January 1975 |volume=13 |issue=5 |oclc=20458258 }}
{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |author-link=Roberta Smith |title=Art in Review |work=The New York Times |date=1 April 1994 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/01/arts/art-in-review-645320.html |access-date=24 February 2025 |url-access=limited |oclc=1645522 }}

=Books=

{{cite book |last1=Shiff |first1=Richard |title=More Dimensions Than You Know: Jack Whitten, Paintings 1979–1989 |date=2018 |publisher=Hauser & Wirth |location=London |isbn=9783906915067 |oclc=993998544}}
{{cite book |last=Shiff |first=Richard |title=Jack Whitten: Cosmic Soul |location=Zurich |publisher=Hauser & Wirth |date=2022 |isbn=9783906915739 |oclc=1344293845 }}
{{cite book |editor-last=Kuo |editor-first=Michelle |editor-link=Michelle Kuo |title=Jack Whitten: The Messenger |date=2025 |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |location=New York |isbn=9781633451704 |oclc=1500699889 }}

=Interviews=

{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-last=Goldsmith |interviewer-first=Kenneth |interviewer-link=Kenneth Goldsmith |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/1994/07/01/jack-whitten/ |work=BOMB |title=Jack Whitten by Kenneth Goldsmith |date=Summer 1994 |access-date=24 February 2025 |issue=48 |oclc=61313615 }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-last=Storr |interviewer-link=Robert Storr (art academic) |interviewer-first=Robert |title=Jack Whitten with Robert Storr |work=The Brooklyn Rail |date=September 2007 |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2007/09/art/whitten/ |access-date=24 February 2025 |oclc=64199099 }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |date=2009 |title=Oral history interview with Jack Whitten, 2009 December 1–3 |interviewer-last=Richards |interviewer-first=Judith Olch |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-jack-whitten-15748 |work=Archives of American Art Oral History Program |publisher=Archives of American Art |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=3 March 2025 }}
{{cite interview |work=The Wall Street Journal |title=Committing Abstract Thoughts to Canvas |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-first=Andy |interviewer-last=Battaglia |date=6 February 2013 |oclc=781541372 |url-access=subscription |access-date=5 March 2025 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323452204578288341730876534 }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |work=Art in America |title=Expressive Abstraction: An Interview with Jack Whitten |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/interviews/expressive-abstraction-an-interview-with-jack-whitten-56343/ |date=3 October 2013 |access-date=5 March 2025 |oclc=1514286 |interviewer-last=Dawson |interviewer-first=Jessica }}
{{cite interview |work=Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-first=Robert |interviewer-last=Storr |interviewer-link=Robert Storr (art academic) |title=Robert Storr in Conversation with Jack Whitten |date=2015 |publisher=Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |oclc=910702740 |isbn=9780934418744 |pages=41–67 }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/jack-whitten-talks-about-process-and-his-touring-retrospective-226268/ |work=Artforum |title=Jack Whitten |date=20 October 2015 |access-date=25 February 2025 |interviewer-last=Campbell |interviewer-first=Andrianna }}
{{cite interview |work=The Brooklyn Rail |date=February 2017 |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/02/art/JACK-WHITTEN-with-Jarrett-Earnest/ |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-last=Earnest |interviewer-first=Jarrett |title=Jack Whitten with Jarrett Earnest |access-date=5 March 2025 |oclc=64199099 }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |title=Quantum Wall: An Interview with Jack Whitten |interviewer-first=Yevgeniya |interviewer-last=Traps |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/01/quantum-wall-an-interview-with-jack-whitten/ |work=The Paris Review |date=1 March 2017 |access-date=5 March 2025 |oclc=1641889 }}
{{cite interview |work=The Wall Street Journal |title=Artist Jack Whitten's Favorite Things |date=26 September 2017 |oclc=781541372 |url-access=subscription |access-date=5 March 2025 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/artist-jack-whittens-favorite-things-1506442593 |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-first=Thomas |interviewer-last=Gebremedhin }}
{{cite book |chapter=Interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |interviewer-last=Martin |interviewer-first=Courtney J. |title=Odyssey: Jack Whitten, Sculpture 1963–2017 |date=2018 |editor-last=Siegel |editor-first=Katy |isbn=9781941366172 |oclc=1022977718 |location=Baltimore / New York |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art / Gregory R. Miller & Co. |pages=146–161 |type=Interview }}
{{cite interview |last=Whitten |first=Jack |date=April 2018 |orig-date=Interview conducted October 2017 |title=Resisting Dichotomies & Compressing Complexity |work=Art21 |url=https://art21.org/read/jack-whitten-resisting-dichotomies-compressing-complexity/ |interviewer-last=Forster |interviewer-first=Ian |access-date=5 March 2025 }}