My Life Has Been an Epic Adventure. —Jack Whitten Odyssey Tells The

My life has been an epic adventure. —Jack Whitten Odyssey tells the incredible story of Jack Whitten’s life. room features early works that Whitten made in New York He traveled across the world, from Alabama to Crete; and kept in his studio there. In the following galleries, we he traveled through time, from the present to the ancient see the works he made in Crete in the decades after 1969, past and into the future. Whitten’s sculptures describe when he began spending summers on the island. He found this journey, and although he is widely recognized for his inspiration and common ground in objects from diverse achievements as an experimental painter, the sculptures African traditions and those of ancient Aegean cultures; are shared for the first time here. Odyssey includes examples of these objects, chosen by At the height of the Civil Rights movement the artist Whitten. In the final room of the exhibition, a series of came to New York, where he visited museums exhibiting paintings unfolds the relation between his sculpture and African art. He began carving wood to understand what he his painting practice, in technique and in spirit. saw: aesthetically, to feed his paintings, and culturally, in Jack Whitten’s legacy is his specific worldview: a cosmic terms of his identity as a Black American. He wrote, “The vision seen from the intersection of the African diaspora, African pieces speak to me directly. I feel their presence + I New York painting, the American South, European art can see their use value for me today.” The exhibition’s first history, and the global technological present. odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Intro wall/intro text, page 1 of 1 Gallery 1 : Ancestral Totem Over ten feet tall, this sculpture is made up of abstracted faces that 1968 form a kind of family tree and give visual expression to Whitten’s desire Birch wood to connect with his own ancestral lineage. He became interested in representing family history as a column of stacked interlocking figures after seeing a Haida totem pole from the Pacific Northwest at the Brooklyn Museum. The faces’ exaggerated features also relate, in a general way, to the forms of African sculpture. The head of a llama sits at the top, a symbol of intelligence and a self-portrait of the artist. The pole continues upward in a gesture toward the future, making space for generations to come. odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Labels, page 1 of 31 Jug Head I and Jug Head II 1965 2 Black-stained American elm with black-shoe-polish patina Whitten synthesized multiple references and traditions in these powerful heads, some of his first forays into sculpture. They pay tribute Whitten structured his time in the studio to 19th-century ceramic “face jugs,” the earliest through discipline and ritual, as well as free of which were created by enslaved potters experimentation. He maintained daily log books exercising a rare opportunity to express over the course of his long career, documenting themselves. Some scholars believe that the form his work and more metaphysical inquiries, as and functions of the face jugs had origins in well as some of the rhythm of daily life. Nearby central African cultures. Whitten applied layers cases feature pages from those log books and of black shoe polish to the heads, recalling his a selection of the tools Whitten used to make childhood in Alabama when adults emphasized his sculptures and his paintings. The artist’s silver polished shoes and proper self-presentation shoes occupy a case of their own. Whitten saw as a matter of style and pride. He continued art-making and life as intimately interconnected to polish these works over the years, adding processes, sustained by conscious habits of care. a fresh layer in preparation for this exhibition. Much as Whitten continued to apply black shoe polish to the surfaces of his Jug Heads—as many as twenty coats a year by his count—he polished his own sneakers with regular applications of Unidentified silver spray paint. African-American Artist from Bath, South Carolina. Face vessel. c. 1860–1870. Glazed stoneware and unglazed earthenware. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Edward Russell Jones odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Labels, page 2 of 31 Homage To Malcolm In the summer following the assassination of Civil The pan-African inspiration for this work can 1965 Rights leader Malcolm X (1925–1965), Whitten sculpted be found in Malcolm X’s life and his advocacy of Black Partly stained American a work that merged disparate African visual traditions Nationalism. When Whitten first encountered African 3 elm, coiled wire, nails, and proclaimed an allegiance to both Africa and the art in New York City museums he saw sculptures like and mixed media larger Black world. Nails allude to iron blades that coat the N’Gonzon Koun (Female Antelope Headdress) on view the bodies of central African minkisi minkondi (power nearby, which displays many of the formal features figures). The sweeping, asymmetrical composition was found in Homage To Malcolm. influenced in part by west African headdresses. Unidentified Bamana Artist Lovers N’Gonzon Koun 1963–1964 John Lennon Altarpiece (Female Antelope Headdress) Black-stained American elm 1968 Early 20th century with black-shoe-polish patina Koulikoro region, Mali American white oak and mixed media, Wood, iron, and fiber including brown organic rice The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Alan Wurtzburger, BMA 1954.145.1 odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Labels, page 3 of 31 Gallery 2: Unidentified Luluwa Artist In Luluwa society, sculptures like this female figure were Bwanga bwa Bwimpe created to protect women and children. Her muscular limbs, (Female Figure of the Bwimpe society) erect posture, and determined face appear profoundly 1920–1939 contemporary, recalling the strength and poise of women we Kasaï province, Democratic Republic of Congo know today. Whitten admired Luluwa figures not only for their Wood formal, geometric qualities, but also for the range of functions they perform. It was this sense of agency—this capacity to The Baltimore Museum of Art: effect change in the world—that Whitten would increasingly Gift of Alan Wurtzburger, BMA 1954.145.83 seek to draw out of his own materials and sculptures. Goulandris Master 4,500 years ago, on an island in the southwestern Aegean Sea, an artist Cycladic Female Figure known to history as the Goulandris Master carved this abstracted female c. 2500–2400 BCE form from a block of marble. One of fifty such sculptures in existence, Cyclades, Greece this compact figure radiates grace and self-possession. Like the Luluwa Marble figure beside her, this artwork resonates with concerns of modern sculpture, especially in its abstracted face, elemental geometry, and The Walters Art Museum, attention to the materiality of the marble from which it is made. For Baltimore, 23.253 Whitten, these commonalities pointed to the universality and unity of humanity across time. odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Labels, page 4 of 31 Sphinx Whitten created Sphinx during a moment in the Civil Rights movement 1966–1967 when ideas about the connection of Black people to the African continent Butternut wood were gaining renewed currency. In Afrocentric thought, the achievements of the ancient Egyptians belong to Black history. Whitten extended this idea to incorporate the ancient Aegean world. Sphinx’s hybrid form—sinuous above and sturdy below—references both the Great Sphinx of Giza, with its human head and lion’s body, and the sphinx of Greek mythology, which also has a bird’s wings and sometimes a serpent’s tail. Like these monsters of the ancient world, Whitten’s Sphinx is a creature of mystery. The Heart of Humanity The smooth circular form at the top of this sculpture recalls 1972–1973 the disk-like heads of Asante Akua’mma (fertility figures) from Black mulberry Ghana. At the core of the work is a rounded form within Unidentified Asante Artist. a compartment comprised of interlocking pyramids that create Fertility Figure: Female a protective chamber, like a human heart within a ribcage. (Akua Ba). 19th–20th century. To bring about this effect, Whitten skillfully removed wood Ghana. Wood, beads, and string. from the interior of the log without disturbing the surface. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Through this “internal carving” he represented the locus Memorial Collection, Bequest of human goodness—the heart of our humanity. of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.75) odyssey Jack Whitten sculpture 1963–2017 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thalheimer and May galleries April 22–July 29, 2018 Labels, page 5 of 31 Kritiko Spiti (Cretan House) Kritiko Spiti means “Cretan house” in Greek. This sculpture’s leaning 1974–1975 form bridges the space between floor and wall, with six stacked segments. Cretan walnut and ceramic figure An arcing wedge grows into a long, bowed form. On top sits a thin platform, a trapezoidal shelf, a skewed arch, and finally a broad block that looks like an overhanging roof. A ceramic girl in a ruffled pink dress rests snugly under the arch. This single, delicate found object is unusual in Whitten’s body of sculpture. Cretans traditionally distribute such figurines as party favors at weddings and baptisms.

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