Out into the Open

Squares of color form a loose grid—the organizing structure for all of Stanley Whitney’s work. The artist’s travels abroad and the architecture he encountered prompted this practice. Visiting Rome in 1992, he admired blocks used to construct ancient structures, and in Egypt in 1996, he marveled at the density of the pyramids. Yet, color is as important to Whitney as shape and is the primary subject matter of his work. Here, stacked blocks of bold and varied hues expand and animate the structure of the grid.