Stanley Whitney is a contemporary African-American artist known for his use of a loose grid of colors in his paintings. He has a wide range of references, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, jazz music, as well as the work of Bob Thompson and Giorgio Morandi. Whitney blocks out squares of color that complement and clash against one another, creating a quilt-like quality to the work. “I start at the top and work down. That gets into call and response,” he explained of his practice. “One color calls forth another. Color dictates the structure, not the other way around.” Born in Philadelphia, PA in 1946, Whitney studied at the Kansas City Art Institute before moving in New York in 1968. The artist went on to attend...