For decades, Stanley Whitney has experimented with a single compositional strategy—rendering grids with seemingly inexhaustible variations of color. The artist has described his process as similar to the call and response flow of traditional African American music, with one color calling forth another and dictating the structure of the work. Whitney draws inspiration from a wide range of historical and cultural references, including: Roman architecture; American quilt-making; and jazz, which the artist listens to while working in the studio.

BIO:

Stanley Whitney was born in 1946. The artist’s work is included in public collections around the world, including: the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. 

Whitney has won prizes, including: the Robert De Niro Sr. Prize in Painting, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award; and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Whitney is currently professor emeritus of painting and drawing at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The artist's monotypes can be found in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.