biography

Stanley Whitney, born 1946 in Philadelphia, is a contemporary African-American artist. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute before he went to continue his studies at the Yale School of Art in New York, where he received an MFA in 1972. Compared to other African-American artists Whitney had no interest in creating art about his black identity, instead he focusses on loosely-gridded multi-colored paintings that reference a wide variety of art historical and cultural references, e.g. Egyptian hieroglyphs, early Minimalism, Jazz music or other artists such as Bob Thompson or Giorgio Morandi. Whitney’s works are known for his brushy blocks of colors that can complement but also clash against one another. He says of his work that color dictates the structure, that one color calls forth another.

The artist lives and works in New York and Parma.

 

His works have been shown at various institutions such as The Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven), The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas), The Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia), The Wexner Center for the Arts (Colombus) and the Documenta 14 (Athens, Kassel).

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

Stanley Whitney: The Italian Paintings, Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Venice

 

2018

Abstraction Today – Mapping the Invisible World, Tobias Mueller Modern Art, Zurich

 

2017

Stanley Whitney, Documenta 14, Athens/Kassel

 

2016

Focus – Stanley Whitney, Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth

 

2015

Dance the Orange, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

 

2007

Stanley Whitney, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia

 

2004

Stanley Whitney: Recent Works, A.A.M Architettura Arte Moderna, Rome

 

1991

Stanley Whitney, University of Dayton, Dayton

 

1985

Stanley Whitney, University of Rhode Island, Kingston

Stanley Whitney, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

 

1984

Stanley Whitney, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond

 

1983

Stanley Whitney, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York

 

1972

Stanley Whitney, University of Rhode Island, Kingston