Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed

A new, fully transcribed edition of the celebrated collection of Jack Whitten’s wide-ranging, perceptive writings

Writing occupied a fundamental place in Jack Whitten’s artistic practice and in his day-to-day life, weaving the two together. Notes from the Woodshed gathers the artist’s daily logs, longer essayistic entries, and selected talks and published statements. Edited by Katy Siegel, these texts intertwine Whitten’s experiments in the studio, thoughts about painting as a medium, and broad investigations of politics, matter, and metaphysics.

Now in its second edition, this publication is the definitive resource on Whitten’s writings, presenting a fully transcribed collection of the artist’s handwritten logs. Selections from these writings are illustrated with facsimiles of the originals, giving us a feel for the studio and for Whitten’s hand, animating his remarkable line of thought. This edition also features a new afterword in the form of a conversation on Whitten between curators Matilde Guidelli-Guidi and Zoé Whitley and artist Glenn Ligon that sketches out the different forms a deep engagement with his writings might take.