Yellow Changing

While Whitney is known primarily for his paintings, he has also created an extensive body of works on paper to include prints. Yellow Changing portrays intense sensations of color and movement. The dynamic squares of color arranged both horizontally and vertically can be read autonomously as individual paintings and as an irregularly ordered grid that fills the surface. The title is evoked by the optical and perceptual shifts that occur when viewing the print. Whitney has described the profound role color plays in his work, with each tone inspiring the others as well as the form. Despite his association with color, however, he has stated, "I don’t have a theory about color. . . . Whatever the color does is fine. I don’t want to have control over color." Aquatint allows Whitney to endow his palette with a luminosity that recalls stained glass. The forms and lines are fluid, blending to create the sensation of multiple pools of colors.