Jack Whitten, Beloved Painter of Abstract Cosmologies, Dies at 78 -ARTnews
His “conceptual paintings” offered new possibilities for what abstraction could be.
“Ethereal and oftentimes mystical, Whitten’s paintings came out of inquiries into philosophical, scientific, and mathematical concepts. The chipped-paint technique in the “E Stamps” works, for example, often makes his work shine, and it sprang from reading up on the physical properties of light. “We know now that light occurs in extremely small particles,” he once told ARTnews. “That’s what allows us to see—those little fucking photons bouncing around your retina, and blam-o, I can see!””
Source: Jack Whitten, Beloved Painter of Abstract Cosmologies, Dies at 78 -ARTnews