27.03.2019 Page 1 / 4

HAMBURGER BAHNHOF – SELECTED QUOTES FROM JACK WHITTEN MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART – BERLIN STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin On (Apps for Obama)

PRESS CONFERENCE Apps, terminology, use. Everybody uses it. It’s there, it’s available. So I use that as Wed 27.03.2019, 11 am a symbol. And when I did this , Obama was running into trouble. In my little

OPENING mind, I’m thinking, well, maybe if I make some apps for the brother, and if he learns Thu 28.03.2019, 7 pm to use them... I am convinced that that painting helped him to get ele cted! And it’s all laid out, you know: it’s very symbolic references. It’s a referential painting. He’s EXHIBITION 29.03. – 01.09.2019 in there, Michelle is in there, the kids are in there, the advisors are in there —all the support mechanisms that it takes to do what he does is in there. And I still say to them, you know, wake up, learn about the arts, learn about painting, talk to artists. It would be very helpful if people in Washington talked to artists. Jack Whitten, “Apps for Obama,” https://www.mcasd.org/artworks/apps-obama, (accessed February 24, 2019)

On Black Monolith X, The Birth of Muhammad Ali PRESS CONTACT EXHIBITION I could spend the rest of my life adding to my series of Black Monolith . Dr. Katharina von Chlebowski Verena Mühlegger There are so many Black Monoliths in the history of African Americans. Our history TEL +49 30 26 39 488 0 of survival in America is defined both by the heroic deeds of the collective, and of FAX +49 30 26 39 488 11 the independent activists working in a variety of disciplines. Politics, Science, Busi- [email protected] www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de ness, Music, Visual Arts, Dance, Theater, Literature, and Sports. Their contributions towards the rebuilding of our culture destroyed through the cruel and inhumane

PRESS CONTACT system of is worthy of tribute. We have survived unbelievable odds and the STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN reconstruction of our culture continues. Generaldirektion Stauffenbergstraße 41 The Black Monolith series is my contribution as a painter to memorialize these he- 10785 Berlin roes through the abstract meaning of symbol. I choose abstraction because of its

Mechtild Kronenberg timeless universality. Every human emotion, every hope, every dream, every Press, Communication, Sponsorship memory, and finally, every narrative, can be compressed within abstraction. TEL +49 30 266 42 34 01 FAX +49 30 266 42 34 09 The passing of Muhammad Ali was especially painful for me. His raw, primal power [email protected] www.smb.museum/presse channeled through the plasticity of boxing is something that I seek in painting. Ali was the living example of greatness. Fiona Geuss Press officer Nationalgalerie Extreme physicality orchestrated by the bluntness of hardcore conceptuality is TEL +49 30 39 78 34 17 FAX +49 30 39 78 34 13 what makes this painting work. Ali’s presence is in the paint: “He floats like a but- [email protected] terfly and stings like a bee.” This painting is an exemplar of compression. I had to www.smb.museum/presse go deep into the concept of molecular perception to locate the duality of his birth.

Muhammad Ali was born twice … once as a slave and once as a man. He truly qual- The exhibition is made possible by the ifies as a Black Monolith. Freunde der Nationalgalerie. Jack Whitten, November 2016

On Zulu Tea Parlor Zulu Tea Parlor is a flash of bright reds, vibrant metallic blues, acid yellows, stark blunt titanium White with a hint of cadmium orange tempered by subdued khaki greens, surrounded by a tribal animalistic black, all suspended in a savage ritual dance of salmon pink. I wanted something wild, with a pre-industrial primitive initiative. It had to exist outside logic, and it had to excite the imagination, making it search for other alter- natives to being. It had to be non-Western, and the source had to be African. This 27.03.2019 is not an English tea parlor! Page 2 / 4 Thick blobs of bright acrylic paint were strategically placed on the picture plane and left to dry. After many days of drying, the blobs were covered by several layers of black mixed with metallic bronzing powders, then left to dry. I used my hand- made, twelve foot wide wooden squeegee edged with tough neoprene rubber, then

HAMBURGER BAHNHOF – layers of watery salmon-pink acrylic were raked across the entire picture plane and MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART – BERLIN left to partially dry. Areas of the salmon pink were removed with a sponge and lots STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN of water, revealing irregular organic black shapes. Timing was all-important. A very Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin sharp carpenter’s jack plane was used to cut through the blobs, revealing the orig- inal bright reds, yellows, etc. buried beneath the layers of acrylic. PRESS CONFERENCE Wed 27.03.2019, 11 am This last process of cutting away thin sheets of paint was always a surprise! Zulu

OPENING Tea Parlor was born out of a union of hard-core systemic conceptual thought and Thu 28.03.2019, 7 pm the random recklessness of a high stakes dice game. It’s a fun painting that trans- cends our personal cultural binary systems and introduced me to the concept of EXHIBITION 29.03. – 01.09.2019 “paint as collage.” Jack Whitten, April 2014

On Louise Bourgeois (Saint Louise AKA The Tittie Painting for Louise Bourgeois) First painting of the season is for Louise Bourgeois. I sincerely admired her. A true champion of integrity. I want something of sly humor … brash + sincere … bold + innovative … sexy in a L.B. manner. Did anyone consider Louise to be sexy? PRESS CONTACT Jack Whitten, Note from September 12, 2010, in: Katy Siegel, ed., Jack Whitten: EXHIBITION Dr. Katharina von Chlebowski Notes from the Woodshed (New York: Hauser and Wirth Publishers, 2018), p. 360. Verena Mühlegger TEL +49 30 26 39 488 0 FAX +49 30 26 39 488 11 [email protected] On (One Hundred Ninety Pieces of Color: For Ellsworth Kelly #2) www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de Pure elemental color was Ellsworth Kelly’s gift to painting. Before Ellsworth, Henri Matisse was the painter of pure color without any adulteration. Ellsworth spent a PRESS CONTACT STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN number of years in France studying Matisse and was highly influenced by the struc- Generaldirektion ture of color in his painting. Stauffenbergstraße 41 10785 Berlin One could say that the structure of color in an Ellsworth Kelly painting is a distilla-

Mechtild Kronenberg tion of Matisse’s color distilled into an essence. In painting, essence is a cerebral Press, Communication, Sponsorship phenomenon, i.e., we experience it in our brain. It is not a function of the gut. TEL +49 30 266 42 34 01 FAX +49 30 266 42 34 09 I have always admired Ellsworth’s paintings for their tough reductionary position [email protected] www.smb.museum/presse in postwar American abstraction. I have learned a lot from him and every time I had the opportunity to speak with him, it confirmed his importance as a painter. Fiona Geuss Press officer Nationalgalerie One Hundred Ninety Pieces Of Color: For Ellsworth Kelly is made from pure ele- TEL +49 30 39 78 34 17 mental color (straight from the tube) without any adulteration, placed on a back- FAX +49 30 39 78 34 13 [email protected] drop of diaphanous, atmospheric Kelly Green. The symbolic meaning of this paint- www.smb.museum/presse ing addresses the formal application of space not as object floating in space, but

as object placed on space. It is an interesting and profound concept of space that The exhibition is made possible by the forces us to reconsider our traditional understanding of space as a formal element Freunde der Nationalgalerie. in painting.

Jack Whitten, November 2016

On Norman Lewis (Norman Lewis Triptych I) My attraction originally to Norman was the fact that he was an abstract painter. Except for peers of mine, the only other Black painter I knew that was doing ab- straction from the older generation was Haywood “Bill” Rivers. Bill was the only other one. But Norman was the only one that had a substantial presence in the community as a Black abstract painter. That was my attraction, and that’s why I wanted to speak with him. […] When I talked to Norman, we could talk about painting. Not that “the problem,” as 27.03.2019 we call it, didn’t come up. The problem was always there. Always there. He under- Page 3 / 4 stood. Here is a man who is clarifying through abstraction, the notion of Black sen- sibility. Now, when I talk, I can say definitively to anyfuckin’-body who’s willing to listen: there’s such a thing as Black sensibility and I have a history to prove it, and if I have to, I can back into the history and point it out A, B, C, D, where it comes

HAMBURGER BAHNHOF – from. I can do that. Everybody should be able to do that by now. The minute you MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART – BERLIN clarify the Black sensibility, it allows you to link it to the notion of form, the plas- STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN ticity, and then you’re in the position to do something fantastic. Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin Jack Whitten, Autumn 2015, Interview with Andrianna Campbell, in: Katy Siegel,

PRESS CONFERENCE ed., Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed (New York: Hauser and Wirth Publish- Wed 27.03.2019, 11 am ers, 2018), pp. 474-477.

OPENING Thu 28.03.2019, 7 pm On John Coltrane (Totem VI Annunciation. For John Coltrane) EXHIBITION 29.03. – 01.09.2019 I had the opportunity to meet and talk with John Coltrane, my great love in jazz. My brother and I—John was playing out in Brooklyn at a club called Coronet—and we would go out there every night to hear him. He was with Eric Dolphy, and I had the opportunity, that’s where I met him. […] I was speaking with John and the thing I remember the most was his waving his hands. He wasn’t that enthused, you know, I’m a young guy talking about art. I don’t think he had much of an interest in art, but my interest in his music—and he said something to me. PRESS CONTACT He waved his hand and he used the word “wave.” He says, “Well, you know, it’s like EXHIBITION Dr. Katharina von Chlebowski a wave.” This is what I remember the most—“it’s like a wave”—and something went Verena Mühlegger off in my head. It identified with what I was feeling in painting. It came directly out TEL +49 30 26 39 488 0 FAX +49 30 26 39 488 11 of his music, that way of playing that he had. [email protected] www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de Some people later called it “traneing” [sheets of sound] or a way of stretching out the notes but I equated that with something that I was working with, which I call

PRESS CONTACT “sheets of light.” STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN Generaldirektion In Coltrane’s terminology it was “sheets of sound.” This is very important and I was Stauffenbergstraße 41 working with these in terms of sheets of light. 10785 Berlin Jack Whitten, in: Judith Olch Richards, Oral history interview with Jack Whitten, Mechtild Kronenberg 2009 December 1–3, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 89, Press, Communication, Sponsorship TEL +49 30 266 42 34 01 www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-jack-whitten- FAX +49 30 266 42 34 09 15748#overview, (accessed February 24, 2019) [email protected] www.smb.museum/presse

Fiona Geuss On meaning and art Press officer Nationalgalerie TEL +49 30 39 78 34 17 Meaning is the enemy of art. Artists must resist the temptation to give meaning to FAX +49 30 39 78 34 13 [email protected] art. We are not politicians. Truth has no meaning nor can it be confined in tight www.smb.museum/presse spaces. In painting, the materials represent the truth; not the narrative. I trust red,

yellow... all pigments embody truth. We must be careful and allow them to spea k The exhibition is made possible by the for themselves. Stop imposing meaning to colors. They don’t need your help. You Freunde der Nationalgalerie. set- up the support i.e., the scaffolding and they will take care of the rest.

Jack Whitten, Note from September 18, 2012, in: Katy Siegel (Ed.), Jack Whitten. Notes from the Woodshed, Zürich 2018, p. 400.

On art and politics My African-American identity shaped by the politics of racism in America makes it extremely difficult for me to experience the leisure of being apolitical. Every artist recognizes the “immediateness” of being apolitical as a selfish narcissistic defense mechanism. It is an existentialist right to reject the world in order to commune with the self. History has proven that the apolitical is a dangerous political choice and that there is a price to pay under certain circumstances. Jack Whitten, in: Jeanne Siegel, Painting after Pollock, Structures of Influence, Am- 27.03.2019 sterdam 1999, p. 143. Page 4 / 4

HAMBURGER BAHNHOF – MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART – BERLIN STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin

PRESS CONFERENCE Wed 27.03.2019, 11 am

OPENING Thu 28.03.2019, 7 pm

EXHIBITION 29.03. – 01.09.2019

PRESS CONTACT EXHIBITION Dr. Katharina von Chlebowski Verena Mühlegger TEL +49 30 26 39 488 0 FAX +49 30 26 39 488 11 [email protected] www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de

PRESS CONTACT STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN Generaldirektion Stauffenbergstraße 41 10785 Berlin

Mechtild Kronenberg Press, Communication, Sponsorship TEL +49 30 266 42 34 01 FAX +49 30 266 42 34 09 [email protected] www.smb.museum/presse

Fiona Geuss Press officer Nationalgalerie TEL +49 30 39 78 34 17 FAX +49 30 39 78 34 13 [email protected] www.smb.museum/presse

The exhibition is made possible by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie.