{
"data": {
"id": 168223,
"accession_number": "2010.1",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Rho I, 1977. Jack Whitten (American, 1939\u20132018). Acrylic on canvas; unframed: 182.8 x 213.2 cm (71 15/16 x 83 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Scott C. Mueller and Margaret Fulton Mueller, 2010.1. \u00a9 Jack Whitten",
"current_location": "229C Contemporary",
"title": "Rho I",
"creation_date": "1977",
"creation_date_earliest": 1977,
"creation_date_latest": 1977,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Black American Artists"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "acrylic on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Contemporary Art",
"collection": "CONTEMP - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Unframed: 182.8 x 213.2 cm (71 15/16 x 83 15/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"unframed": {
"height": 1.828,
"height_inch": 71,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 2.132,
"width_inch": 83,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Jack Whitten",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 443702,
"title": "Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus",
"description": "Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-June 26, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-02-20T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 453007,
"title": "Julie Mehretu: Portals",
"description": "Julie Mehretu: Portals. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 13, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-07-16T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Jack Whitten, Alexander Grey Gallery, New York, NY (September 13 - October 20, 2007)",
"opening_date": "2007-09-13T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Collection of the artist, consigned to Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY, 2010",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1997-2010",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2010",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2010-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This is part of Whitten\u2019s \u201cGreek Alphabet\u201d series where he completely removed color from his works to see how black and white can work together\u2014both artistically and politically.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Referring to his studio as his \u201claboratory,\u201d Jack Whitten experimented with tools and materials to create abstract artworks in response to social, political, and technological issues shaping his world. In 1970, he created the \u201cDeveloper,\u201d a rakelike wooden device he variously modified with serrated combs, metal blades, and squeegees, among other components. For Rho I, Whitten laid the canvas on his studio floor, covering it with thick coats of paint. He then pulled the Developer across the surface, revealing underlying layers as well as an impression of the studio floor and any scrap materials that may have been left or placed beneath the canvas.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60480582"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Ostrow, Saul. \u201cProcess, Image and Elegy.\u201d Art in America 96, no. 4 (April 2008): 148-155, 183.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 152-153",
"url": "http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=504451986&site=ehost-live"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \"Cleveland Museum of Art Announces Newest Acquisitions,\" September 7, 2010, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4979"
},
{
"citation": "Mann, C. Griffith. \"Acquisitions 2010.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 51, no. 2 (March/April 2011): 10-27.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 21",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2011-02/page/20/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David. Director\u2019s Choice: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, in association with London: Scala Publishers Ltd., 2012.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 72-73; mentioned: p. 73.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/813979055"
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, in association with London: Scala Publishers Ltd., 2012.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 335; mentioned: p. 334.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David. \u201cRecent Acquisitions (2005-2011) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1312 (July 2012): 525-32.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 532, Fig. XX.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/7781121424"
},
{
"citation": "Sparks, Amy and Rebecca Michaels, eds. African American Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 6; mentioned: p. 26.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/828725641"
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Key Jo, and William Griswold. Perceptual Drift: Black Art and an Ethics of Looking. Cleveland, OH : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 15-31, fig. 1, 5a-b.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.1",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Scott C. Mueller and Margaret Fulton Mueller",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 168223,
"creators": [
{
"id": 59136,
"description": "Jack Whitten (American, 1939\u20132018)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1939",
"death_year": "2018",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2010-03-01T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1977,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1977",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:25:35.285000"
}
}