I mmediately recognisable, A Brief History (2018) is an archetypal example of Stanley Whitney’s celebrated colour grid series in which the artist explores the conceptual capabilities of colour. Absorbings the viewer’s attention, the colour blocks are imbued with a palpable energy and rhythmicality that pulses off the canvas—simultaneously emerging and receding, expanding and contracting before the viewer’s eyes. Describings these works that appear to have a life of their own, the artist has said: “I don’t have any colour theory. The colour is magic, and I want the work to be magic. I lay a colour down and that colour calls another colour, and then it's a balancing act. You don’t want to have something dominate something else, and you want to have good transitions” (Stanley Whitney quoted in: Alteronce Gumby, “Oral History Project: Stanley Whitney by Alteronce Gumby,” BOMB, 21 April 2015, online). Indeed, the rhythmicality of works such as A Brief History reflects the artist’s love of jazz music, often titling his paintings with references to his favourite jazz songs or musicians: “Painting, for me, is like music. It really is like call and response. A colour calls another colour” (Ibid.).

Whitney’s vivid paintings are at once free and ordered, using a grid-like structure which the artist has likened to the vibrancy and “madness” of New York: “I never think about the structure as a grid—though it is a grid, really. I’m a real New York City painter, if you know what I mean. My paintings are just the way New York is. I want that kind of simplicity, which is also the madness of New York, because of the colour. So you have this contradiction, in a sense. There’s the grid, which should be very orderly, and then you put the colour, and it throws the whole thing off.” (Stanley Whitney, quoted in Alteronce Gumby, “Oral History Project: Stanley Whitney by Alteronce Bumby”, BOMB, 21 April 2015, online).

The chromatic rectangular and square compositions of Whitney’s work recalls Piet Mondrian’s famous abstract works, composed of planes and bands of vibrant colour, as seen in such masterpieces as Broadway Boogie Woogie (created in 1942-43). Like Whitney, Mondrian was inspired by the city of New York after his arrival in 1940, imbuing works such as Broadway Boogie Woogie with a vibrating rhythm. Further, the way in which Whitney’s block of colour bleed into one another further resists a definitive categorization of his work’s structure as a “grid”, which suggests that its colourful elements exist in isolation from one another. Reviewing Whitney’s iconic paintings and his ability to achieve an “alloverness” that recalls the likes of Pollock, acclaimed critic Roberta Smith commented: “Mr. Whitney’s system is flexible and simple: On square canvases, he arranges sturdy blocks of singing color into vibrant grids, without benefit of straight edge, reinforcing them with at least three horizontal bands. When these bands match the blocks, space is altered by the effect of banners hanging from ribbons. These grids are always irregular, and slivers of color often intrude from the edges, implying other blocks that might yet slide into view, creating a different arrangement” (Roberta Smith, “Review: Stanley Whitney’s Paintings Reinvent the Grid”, The New York t.mes s, 16 July 2015, online).

Discussing the notion of space in colour and the condensed structure of his compositions, placing blocks of varying colour next to each other, Whitney recalls the influence of the Egyptian architecture and pyramids on his work: “I looked at the pyramids and found the last missing piece of my puzzle—it was density… I bet I can just stick these colours right next to each other instead of having them on a field. I didn’t know at that point that the space was in the colour. I kept thinking the space was around, and the colour was all in the space. But when I put the colours directly next to each other, I realised that I don’t lose the air” (Stanley Whitney, quoted in Alteronce Gumby, “Oral History Project: Stanley Whitney by Alteronce Bumby”, BOMB, 21 April 2015, online). As seen here, despite the apparent density of the colour blocks, highly saturated with intense pigments, the overall effect of the work is that of a distinct weightlessness, a snapshot of colours and lines that extend beyond the borders of the canvas.

《A Brief History》（2018）讓人一眼即能認出是史丹利．惠特尼的作品，他以著名的彩色方格系列探索以色彩表現概念的可能，本作是當中的代表佳作。畫中的色塊充滿了能量，展現躍然跳動的節奏感——彷彿在觀眾眼前同時浮現和消失、擴張和收縮，深深吸引觀眾的注意力。惠特尼曾形容這些作品像有生命似的，他解釋道：「我沒有任何色彩理論，色彩很神奇，我想作品充滿神奇力量。我畫上一種顏色，那種顏色就呼喚另一種顏色，這是一種相互平衡。你不會想有一方比別的強，而是有良好的過渡」（引述史丹利．惠特尼，載於艾爾泰隆斯．甘比撰，〈艾爾泰隆斯．甘比的口述歷史計劃：史丹利．惠特尼〉，《BOMB》，2015年4月21日，摘錄自網絡）。誠然，《A Brief History》一類作品的節奏感反映藝術家熱愛爵士樂，他經常以喜歡的爵士樂曲和樂手命名作品，他說：「對我來說，繪畫就像音樂，就像一呼一應，一種色彩呼喚另一種」（同上）。

惠特尼的畫作洋溢生氣，於規律中見悠然，並以彷似格子構成的畫面比喻紐約的活力和「瘋狂」：「我從未想過畫面是由方格組成——即使我畫的確實是方格。我可是真正的紐約畫家，你應該明白我的意思。我的畫就是紐約的樣子，我想要的那種簡單，因為顏色的關係，也正正是紐約的瘋狂。在某種意義上，你發現有這麼的矛盾。方格的樣子原本應該非常整齊，如果把顏色加進去，整件事就亂了套」（引述史丹利．惠特尼，載於艾爾泰隆斯．甘比撰，〈艾爾泰隆斯．甘比的口述歷史計劃：史丹利．惠特尼〉，《BOMB》，2015年4月21日，摘錄自網絡）。惠特尼運用彩色長方形和正方形組織構圖，令人想起皮耶．蒙德里安聞名遐邇的抽象畫，像從《百老匯爵士樂》（1942—43）所見，畫面由亮麗的色面和色帶組成。與惠特尼一樣，蒙德里安在1940年遷居紐約後受這座城市啟發，為像《百老匯爵士樂》一類的作品加入激盪的節奏。此外，惠特尼繪畫的色塊與色塊之間，顏色互相滲入，這種處理手法進一步拒絕畫面被歸入「方格」構圖的分類，表明所有繽紛的色彩元素都是獨立存在的。對於惠特尼的繪畫以及他像傑克森．波拉克那樣填滿畫布的才能，知名藝評人蘿伯塔．史密斯審視有這樣的評價：「惠特尼的體系靈活簡單：正方形的畫布上，他沒用上一條直線，把結實的色塊排成活潑的網格，並用至少三條橫置的色帶加強效果。當色帶遇上顏色相同的色塊時，產生絲帶懸掛彩旗的效果，改變空間。這些格子總是不規則的，小片的色彩經常從邊緣侵入，暗示原本有其他可以進入觀眾視野的色塊，排列出不一樣的構圖」（蘿伯塔．史密斯，〈評論：史丹利．惠特尼的畫作徹底改造方格〉，《紐約時報》，2015年7月16日，摘錄自網絡）。

惠特尼談及色彩裡的空間概念和畫面的凝鍊構圖，如何堆砌不同顏色的色塊，他回想起埃及建築和金字塔對其創作的影響：「我看到金字塔就發現我的拼圖中缺少的最後一塊——就是濃度……我相信我只要將這些顏色並排起來，而不用在一個範圍鋪滿色彩。當時我還不知道空間就在色彩裡，卻一直以為空間只在四周，是色彩充滿了空間。但當我直接將不同顏色放在一起，我意識到我仍能保留那氣氛」（引述史丹利．惠特尼，載於艾爾泰隆斯．甘比撰，〈艾爾泰隆斯．甘比的口述歷史計劃：史丹利．惠特尼〉，《BOMB》，2015年4月21日，摘錄自網絡）。從本作所見，雖然色塊的濃度明顯很高，強烈的顏色非常飽和，但整體上作品仍然輕盈無重，將延伸至畫布外的色彩和線條呈現出來。