Oil on linen
184,2 x 216 cm / 72,5 x 85 in

Untitled, 1999 painting exemplifies Stanley Whitney’s renowned color grid series, where the artist delves into the expressive potential of color. The vibrant blocks captivate the viewer, pulsating with an energy and rhythm that seem to dance off the canvas—simultaneously advancing and retreating, expanding and contracting before the observer’s eyes.

“Stanley Whitney has energized abstraction for himself and others by using saturated color and the Modernist grid for their mutual reinvention. In so doing, he has devised an improvisatory, enriched Minimalism, whose hard edges, ruled lines and predetermined systems have been loosened and destabilized, whose colors are more random — all of which gives the viewer an immense amount to look at and mull over.”
— Roberta Smith, “Review: Stanley Whitney’s paintings reinvent the grid”, The New York Times.

"Color is my form, and I'm interested in how color moves and interacts."

– Stanley Whitney

"Abstraction is a language that speaks to the emotions and the psyche, and it's a very personal form of expression."

– Stanley Whitney

Whitney’s solid grids emulate stable structures that remain rhythmic, spontaneous, and erratic in nature. Rather than serving as a proscriptive framework, the grid formation acts as a liberating compositional tool, enabling improvisation through color and texture.

The chromatic rectangular and square compositions in Whitney’s work recall Jasper Johns' False Start (1959) and Piet Mondrian's Composition A With Black, Red, Grey, Yellow And Blue (1919), contextualizing the broader development of geometric abstraction in the 20th century. With its loose brushstrokes and musical tonality, the work also evokes Romare Bearden's painting Jazz Village (1967) which presents vivid rhythmic patterns that echo the improvisational energy of jazz, suggesting different but complementary explorations of color and form.

Untitled, 1999 emerges from a period of profound artistic evolution for Whitney. During the 1990s, while working in his studio in Rome, his compositions evolved from free-flowing, amorphous forms to the more structured, stacked arrangements that now define his mature work. The art and architecture of Rome greatly influenced his nuanced understanding of the interplay between color and geometry. Italy continues to be a lasting and significant source of inspiration for the artist.