Jack Whitten was an African-American artist best known for his rigorous experimentation with the materiality of painting. Using eggshells, acrylic paint, copper, and Styrofoam, he creates unique textures and photographic light effects. Titling his works with scientific, personal, or popular culture references—such as Quantum Wall or Church Street Spring—the artist calls forth evocative metaphors for culture and visual experience. “I’m convinced today that a lot of my attitudes toward painting and making, and experimentation came from George Washington Carver,” Whitten reflected. “He made his own pigments, his own paints, from his inventions with peanuts. The obsession with invention and discovery impressed...