Jack Whitten at Hauser & Wirth

Pain and promise are embodied in one of the most beautiful and sobering artworks in Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition of late artist Jack Whitten’s paintings from the ‘90s.  A tribute to the children killed in the 1995 mass shooting, ‘Mask III:  For the Children of Dunblane, Scotland’ memorializes lost lives in a blaze of color created with chips of acrylic paint fashioned together in Whitten’s signature collage-like technique.  Honoring the dead and acting as witness, Whitten galvanizes his audience to resist what’s wrong and unify for higher purpose.  (On view through Jan 23rd).

Jack Whitten, Mask III: For the Children of Dunblane, Scotland, acrylic and recycled glass on canvas, 1996.