Stanley Whitney American, 1946
Untitled, 2013
Graphite on paper
22 1/8 x 29 7/8 in.
56.2 x 75.9 cm.
56.2 x 75.9 cm.
Signed & dated verso
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Whitney’s graphite works distill the concerns that animate his paintings into a more intimate, reduced register. In this black-and-white drawing, the artist abandons color while retaining his characteristic emphasis on...
Whitney’s graphite works distill the concerns that animate his paintings into a more intimate, reduced register. In this black-and-white drawing, the artist abandons color while retaining his characteristic emphasis on structure, rhythm, and interval. The surface is organized through a loose but deliberate grid, where hand-drawn lines resist mechanical precision, asserting the presence of the body and the temporality of mark-making. The absence of color foregrounds Whitney’s ongoing engagement with rhythm as a visual principle. As he notes, “It’s all about how things relate—how one thing sits next to another.” In graphite, these relationships become more austere, even stark, yet no less dynamic.