Opening reception: Wednesday, May 8, 6–8pm
About
Gagosian is pleased to announce By the Love of Those Unloved, the gallery’s first exhibition of work by Stanley Whitney in New York. Featuring new paintings and works on paper, the exhibition is on view at 980 Madison Avenue from May 8 through June 22.
A master colorist, Whitney takes an exploratory and lyrical approach to painting. Each of his canvases is structured as a loose grid of rectilinear blocks in three or four rows. Laying down one vivid color at a time, the artist establishes relationships between each area, its neighbors, and the composition as a whole, employing gestural brushwork to juxtapose hues applied with varied degrees of opacity. Between each row are linear bands that ground the composition and sometimes extend the tones of individual blocks. Inspired by jazz, Whitney defines a space within which to improvise, each painting setting a unique group of chromatic and spatial harmonies in motion.
Peaches (2023) is dominated by the warm pinks and oranges suggested by its title, which stand in contrast to the cooler blues, blacks, and greens with which they are paired. Spanning ten feet in width, As Wild as the World 2 (2023) reveals the visual impact of scale in conjunction with Whitney’s iterative technique. High Hopes (2024) is a study in contrasts, with complementary pairs of red/green and orange/blue pressing against one another. The loose brushstrokes and more muted tones at the top and bottom of A Tribute to Billie (2024) establish a sonorous composition that evokes the expressive power and vulnerability of its namesake, Billie Holiday.
#StanleyWhitney
980 Madison Avenue, New York
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075
+1 212 744 2313
newyork@gagosian.com
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10–6
Artist
Download
Press
Gagosian
press@gagosian.com
Hallie Freer
hfreer@gagosian.com
+1 212 744 2313
Polskin Arts
Meagan Jones
meagan.jones@finnpartners.com
+1 212 593 6485
Stanley Whitney: Vibrations of the Day
Stanley Whitney invited professor and musician-biographer John Szwed to his studio on Long Island, New York, as he prepared for an upcoming survey at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to discuss the resonances between painting and jazz.
Book Corner
Private Pages Made Public
Megan N. Liberty explores artists’ engagement with notebooks and diaries, thinking through the various meanings that arise when these private ledgers become public.
The Space Is in the Color: Stanley Whitney
Stanley Whitney reflects on the evolution of his work with Louise Neri, from his formative early days in New York to the pivotal period he spent living and working in Rome, arriving at the highly distinctive paintings for which he is now known. They explore the diverse and surprising influences of art and music on Whitney’s oeuvre, as well as his process and practice.
Stanley Whitney: Rhythm and Vision
While preparing his first exhibition with Gagosian, in Rome, Stanley Whitney speaks with Louise Neri in his New York studio about how he arrived at his unique and intuitive approach to color and space in painting, employing a dynamic fusion of preordained structure and improvisation.
Stanley Whitney: The Ruins
For American painter Stanley Whitney, Italy remains a central and enduring source of inspiration. Matthew Jeffrey Abrams, the author of a new monograph on the artist, reflects on the profound and far-reaching influence of Italian art and architecture on Whitney’s art.
