Draft:Stanley Whitney

Stanley Whitney (born 1946, Philadelphia, US) is an American abstract painter. He lives and works in New York and Parma, Italy.

Following his tenure at Yale, Whitney was deeply drawn to refining an abstract visual language, evident in his early works featuring patches of color juxtaposed with expansive areas of empty space. While Whitney's fascination with chromatic experimentation persisted throughout his career, it was during his time in Rome in the 1990s that he truly solidified his unique approach. This period marked a significant shift in his compositions, transitioning to the more intricate and dense stacked arrangements that now define his mature style. Italy, having played a pivotal role during this transformative phase, continues to inspire Whitney.

In 2022, the artist’s solo exhibition ‘The Italian Paintings’ took place alongside the 59th Venice Biennale at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi in Venice.

Whitney is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996) and Pollock-Krasner Fellowship (2002) and won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award (2010) and the first Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize in Painting (2011).

Public collections

 * Helga de Alvear Foundation, Cáceres, Spain
 * Long Museum, Shanghai, China
 * Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
 * National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
 * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
 * Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA
 * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

Art market
The artist's most expensive works sold at auctions:


 * $2,319,000 – Forward to Black, 1996; Sotheby's, Nov 18, 2021
 * $2,305,733 – Nightwatch, 2012; Sotheby's, Mar 2, 2022
 * $2,228,000 – Radical Openness, 1992; Sotheby's, May 19, 2022
 * $1,989,152 – Great Balls of Fire, 2005; Christie's, Mar 01, 2022
 * $1,623,000 – Parisian Blue, 2012; Sotheby's, May 20, 2022