The art world is a very, very white place. At a rough estimate, of all the big gallery shows happening in London between September 1 and October 31, less than 15 percent of them feature work by people of colour. Jack Whitten is one them though, and boy oh boy is he a welcome presence. The 77-year-old artist has been creating intricate, adventurous abstract art since the 1960s, forging a new path in African American abstraction. Because even though these works are abstract, and representational of nothing directly as a result, they are the unique products of the black experience.
Some paintings are covered in bumps, thick layers of paint heaped over metallic grids – these are his ‘skin’ paintings, drenched in allusions to keloid scars and skin bumps, they drip with violence, identity and history.
The complex ‘DNA’ works sputter and judder like a stuttering printer. The ‘Site’ paintings narrow down the palette to monochrome. His paintings are layered and complex, but always neatly composed. And more than anything, they haven’t aged. They feel seriously modern. All the neons, the collage, the metallic elements, the vast amount of ideas: if you told me that these were painted yesterday by some Camberwell hipster I’d only be surprised because they’re so good.
Whitten is featured in the really very excellent ‘Soul of a Nation’ at Tate Modern, which is on until October 22, but here you get to be all alone with him, and it’s some proper quality time.
@eddyfrankel
