Stanley Whitney’s colour grid paintings have put his star in the ascendant. These grids also feature in his works on paper. They are not “high end copies of his paintings” but autonomous experiments in colour balance and materials. Still, they share the same ambition as his paintings – “I wanted color like Rothko, but I wanted air like Pollock.”
For Persian royalty in the 17th century, bliss was a walled garden with water channels. Carpets, which they took with them when they travelled, adopted garden design motifs. The legendary Wagner carpet, on display in New York for the first time, is a most spectacular example. Its pattern is fabulously detailed, invoking a well-ordered natural world – “a mirror of heaven”.
Jankowski’s much postponed New York show overviews his varied work – video, painting (originals and knock-offs) and sculpture. The humorous use of other artworks is a common theme across these diverse works. “By using other people’s imagery … Jankowski exposes the spark of life that animates great art, and the craving people of all persuasions have to experience its jolt.”