This month, Stanley Whitney debuts his painting Dear Paris (2023) at Gagosian. Whitney is known for colorful, abstract grids with a certain whimsy to them, and his newest piece is no different. Dear Paris was inspired by the artist’s extended stay in Paris and is both structured and playful, with an air of spontaneity looming in the uneven blocks of color.
“There’s a history of African Americans going to Paris that dates back to after the First World War. Jazz musicians, writers, and artists like Beauford Delaney, James Baldwin, and more recently, Ed Clark, went to Paris for a creative freedom they couldn’t find in the United States. I’ve always wanted to spend more time in Paris, and in 2023, I finally did so. It was incredible to be in the city where so many of the great artists of the twentieth century, artists who were integral to my development as a painter, had lived and worked. In Paris, there’s a play between different periods in a long history; you just don’t have that in the States,” said Whitney.
Dear Paris coincides with the artist’s first comprehensive retrospective, “Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon,” which will be on display at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in New York starting February 9.
