Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American: Sculptures from an exhibition at the Met Breuer, NY in 2018
Jack Whitten was born in Bessemer, Alabama and spent his childhood and adolescence in the deep South.
Where, if he had remained, he said he had no doubt he would kill or be killed. He left for New York after three years in college and a Civil Rights march in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in which he suffered gross abuse and violence.
The New York where in 1960 he began attending Cooper Union, was the first time that the artist mixed with white people, sat next to them in class at Cooper Union, had white teachers.
The place was heady with the Abstract Expressionists, Second Wave Feminists, the turbulences of protesting the Vietnam War; with the exuberance of African American artists reacting to the liberations associated with the Black Power and Black Arts movement.
To the large effect on a young man of this environment has to be added the influence on the artist’s evolution of his visits to the collections of the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums.
There Whitten could study the ritual figures of Africa; among whom the mnkisi: the male power figures made and used throughout the Kongo basin: to exhibit power, for supplication, protection, guidance, warning.
Nkisi N’kondi: Mangaaka, Republic of Congo or Cabinda, Angola, Chiloango River region, Kongo Peoples, Yombe group, 19th century; wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, pigment.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Nkisi (power figure), wood, iron, cloth, pigment, 19th century) Angola or Democratic Republic of Congo. Museum of the University of Pennsylvania
Jack Whitten’s incorporation in his sculpture of this African tradition is in contrast with the formalism, intellectual abstraction and individualism of his paintings.
Homage to the Kri-Kri, 1985, black mulberry, nails, mixed media.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The homage is to the Cretan ibis which is a descendant of domesticated goats kept by the Minoans.
The artist’s wife, Mary, is Greek-American. They first visited Crete together in 1969. Over the years, they summered in the village of Agia Galini. The artist, who had begun making sculpture in New York, soon made sculpture only on Crete.
View From Agia Galini, 1969, acrylic and pencil on canvas.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American. Estate of the artist loan to MOMA, NY in 2025
Among the influences on the artist is the effect of Greece on his work: the light, the fishing in Mediterranean waters, communal village life, the functional uses of wood and marble; and the long reach of the stories of classical Greece.
Having begun his life in repressive North American segregation, the artist moved in stages to a syncretic appreciation of art: New York, African, classical Greek, Cycladic, modern Mediterranean, and the tradition of Western art. These he often interpreted in his work.
Only family and friends knew that Jack Whitten sculpted. The sculptures he held in privacy. Not long before his death, the artist agreed to display his sculptures. They were shipped to the US from Crete. The artist died before they were exhibited.
All but two sculptures shown here – one a doll made for his daughter, Mirsini – were in the estate of the artist at the time of this exhibition.
Mirsini’s Doll, 1975, Cretan walnut, black mulberry.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American. Collection of Mirsini Amidon.
A gift to the artist’s daughter.
The artist was often asked about the sources of his work and of his techniques.
‘Structured feelings’ he called the practice of the arts. A shorthand for the long discipline needed to identify and master feelings in order to structure them.
Whitten with his wife Mary (left) and daughter Mirsini Amidon at the Walker Art Center on the occasion of an exhibition of 50 years of his work, 2015. Photo: Angela Jimenez for Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
*************************
Jug Head I and II, 1965, black stained American elm with black shoe polish patina
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Lovers, 1963-64, black stained American elm with black shoepolish patina.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Homage to Malcolm, 1965, American elm, partly stained, coiled wire, nails, mixed media.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The first work in which the artist embedded nails into wood, a feature of the ritual sculpture of the Kongo Basin. These ritual sculptures are protective and healing and enforcers of communal norms of behaviour.
Sphinx, 1966-67, butternut wood.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Ancestral Totem, 1968, birch wood.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The artist’s avatar, the llama, is at the top of series of abstract heads.
Anthropos #1, 1972, black and white mulberry, wild olive wood, linen twine, wire.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
A view of pieces in the exhibition
Memory Container, 1972-73, black mulberry, fish bones, seashells, linen twine and mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
This piece recalls a reliquary: a memorial of his time on Crete. Each container has a window-like frame. They contain personal items like photographs of family and friend; a Greek drachma note, leaves, animal bones.
Bush Woman, 1974-75, black mulberry and wire
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Scorpion, 1975, white mulberry
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
A frequent visitor to Crete
The Saddle, 1977, Cretan walnut, black mulberry, mixed media.
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The saddle at one end of this piece he learned to carve from local artisans on Agia Glini. Screws, nails and women’s faces are inserted into and carved on the wood.
The museum believes that this piece represents male heterosexual desire.
The Guardian I, For Mary, 1983; black mulberry, Mary’s hair, mixed media, window glass
Jack Whitten, 1938-2018, American.
The Afro-American Thunderbolt, 1983-84, black mulberry, copper plate, nails.
Jack Whitten, 1938-2018, American.
Bosom, for Aunt Surlina, 1985, black mulberry, cherry wood, metal, mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The artist’s aunt, Surlina, a physically and socially powerful woman, ran a cafe in the town in which he was born, Bessemer, Alabama, whose manufacturing base was metal objects.
The Wedding, wild cypress, black Mozambique marble, metal, mixed media, 2006
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
This piece represents the mixing of people and cultures and the artist’s interest in the process known as creolization.
Black marble from Mozambique is wedded to cypress from southern Greece and the whole is held together by the nails and metals reminiscent of the power figures of the Kongo basin
The Death of Fishing, 2007, mulberry, mixed media. Estate of the artist
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
A remembrance of the lynching which killed 4770 African Americans between 1877 and 1950; and of the decline of the fishing industry of Agia Glini, the Cretan fishing village where the artist spent many summers. The guts are fish bones and the artist’s own fishing paraphernalia.
Lichnos, 2008, mulberry, carob wood, white washed cinder block, mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Lichnos is a fish wih poisonous spines. The fish is an ingredient in fishermen’s stew.
The Tomb of Socrates, 2009, wild cypress, black mulberry, marble, brass, mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Gray Matter, 2010, black mulberry, Gortynis marble, Gorilla Glue with sawdust
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
The artist’s interpretation of the work of certain African tribes (Dogon, Tellem, Okpoto, Jaba and Koro peoples according to the museum).
The artist encrusted the sculpture with sawdust attached with superglue.
Technological Totem Pole, 2013, mulberry, Gortynis marble, alarm clock, mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Lucy, 2013, black mulberry, Phaistos stone, mahogany, metal I-beam, mixed media
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
This represents the creature, an Astrolapithecus Afarensis, found in Ethiopia 3.18 million years old and an ancestor of Man.
Each material used by the artist represents a phase of Man’s material evolution. His green American Express card is visible.
The Apollonian Sword, 2014, marble, metal, lead, charred black mulberry
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Aphrodite’s Lover, 2015, marble, molded lead, cherry wood
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Shark Bait, 2016, black mulberry, marble, iroko, acrylic
Jack Whitten, 1939-2018, American
Bits of white marble seem to protrude from mulberry wood sitting on two pieces of Naxos marble. The underside of the wood is painted Mediterranean Sea blue and is reflected in the polished marble.