Now screening: Stanley Whitney in conversation with Ben Okri

13 July 2020

On the occasion of his exhibition ‘Afternoon Paintings’ (2 October – 2 November 2019), Stanley Whitney was joined by author and poet Ben Okri on Saturday 5 October to discuss Whitney’s working methods, thoughts on rhythm and colour, and the influence on his work of music, poetry and literature. Whitney’s discussion of race and politics through the lens of his career is also informative for his current online exhibition, 'No to Prison Life' (13 – 26 July): “Being black in America has always been bad. I’ve never seen it good. My parents grew up in the worst time for black people in America after slavery. So from Civil War to Martin Luther King, you know, all you gotta do is go to that lynching museum down in Alabama. Things were bad.”

Click through here to watch their entire conversation and read excerpts.