Artist, honorary degree recipient Jack Whitten in conversation Saturday

Photo/Mike Lovett

Abstract artist Jack Whitten, one of this year’s honorary degree recipients at Brandeis, will sit down with Rose Art Museum director Chris Bedford and curator-at-large Katy Siegel for an engaging talk on Saturday.

Inspired by Abstract Expressionism, Whitten began his artistic career in the 1960s. Over the decades, Whitten has leveraged abstract painting’s ability to address political issues. For example, his monumental artwork “9.11.01,” into which he incorporated crushed bone, glass and ash, is a memorial to the lives lost on September 11. 

Whitten’s work from the 1970s was presented at the Rose in a 2013 retrospective, “Light Years: Jack Whitten 1971-73,” curated by Siegel, who is co-editing a book of Whitten’s work to be published next year.
Saturday’s talk will be held at the Pollack Fine Arts Teaching Center at 2 p.m.

Whitten is one of five honorary degree recipients who will be recognized during Brandeis’ Commencement ceremonies May 22, along with historic preservationist Frank Brandeis Gilbert, MIT scientist Mildred Dresselhaus, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland and keynote speaker Julieanna Richardson, an oral historian.

Watch the video below filmed at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where Whitten talked about his desire to “map the soul.”

Categories: Arts

Return to the BrandeisNOW homepage