Woodshedding: Jack Whitten’s Jazz

“YOU GOTTA BE ABLE TO THINK LIKE
JOHN COLTRANE TO DO WHAT I AM DOING IN PAINTING:
THE LIGHT EXIST IN SHEETS, JUST LIKE COLTRANE TOLD
ME.”
—Jack Whitten, 2006, as quoted in Notes from the Woodshed, p. 279

Jack Whitten identified jazz as one of his greatest inspirations. His brother was a jazz musician, and he had contemplated becoming one himself; he frequented New York’s jazz clubs throughout his life and knew legendary musicians like John Coltrane, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. In the music’s experimental qualities, Whitten found a parallel for his art. He wrote, “Sound is a vibration made without two things striking. In painting, sound is produced through the optical . . . the optical exists as the result of color densities. This is my connection to Jazz. Jazz is a vibration that expands consciousness.”

“There must be a visual eqavalient to Jazz
. . . . . . an actually object expressing the same pathos.
I want my art to show this”
—Jack Whitten, December 2, 1986, as quoted in Notes from the Woodshed, p. 189

Jack Whitten: The Messenger is on view at MoMA March 23–August 2, 2025.