New York painter Stanley Whitney, known widely for his vibrant, abstract grids, joins us today in Zoom for the 25th New Social Environment. Fellow painter Tom McGlynn hosts the conversation. In response to the imminent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rail shifted our operations online. These New Social Environments provide a place to have vibrant conversations and social intimacy in a time of great physical distancing.
Whitney is one of those painters who is undeniably a painter, dedicated to a work’s ability to break the viewer’s paradigm without being didactic. Here are two thoughts from his 2008 interview with the Rail about Whitney’s commitment to paint: “Color for me is all about touch. Whether it’s thicker or thinner-how you touch the canvas is different. If I put it on at a different weight, it’s a different color. The question for me is whether to repeat a color. I want to paint every color in the world. If I repeat a color-I work hard at repeating,”⁠
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“In the ’60s there were the Panthers, Civil Rights, and Dr. King, and I wanted to paint. How could I justify that? I avoided the Panthers in Kansas City because I wanted to paint, and I thought, God, I can’t tell them that I’m a painter; it’s a bourgeois activity. When people were telling you that you were African-American, and you should be a voice of the race, and this is what you need to do, and you’re a painter...and you’re born as a painter, so what is that? So you had to hide out and protect yourself and go paint. And through painting, you discover why it’s important. I think that I was always that individual.”