Untitled

Whitney has long experimented with color and its effects. In the 1990s, he found inspiration in the art, architecture, and monuments he encountered in Rome and Egypt. As a result, his works became more structured and the forms denser, so as to resemble layers of bricks and other stacked forms. Whitney begins each composition with the square in the top left corner; from there, he moves across the surface to create rows of horizontal registers, each containing multiple irregularly shaped and sized squares.These vibrant squares can be read autonomously as small, individual paintings as well as a series of geometric forms on horizontal registers that are vertically stacked to create an irregularly ordered grid. Here, Whitney focuses on the loose, painterly outlines of each square and its relationship to the white surface. The print exhibits the intense sensations of color and movement, as well as the influence of music (in particular jazz), that are found throughout Whitney’s oeuvre.