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Joan Witek, 91 Fairview Ave, Montauk, NY (2026)

02/12/2026

In Focus: Witek’s D-062 (After Veronese “Unfaithfulness”)
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Careful to journal her inspirations and influences, Witek noted that this drawing was made after one of a series of four paintings by Paolo Veronese that are believed to concern the trials and rewards of love. Designed to be seen from below and intended for a ceiling or a series of ceilings the other three allegorical paintings in Veronese’s series include Scorn, Respect, and Happy Union. All four works are in the collection

In Veronese’s painting, a naked woman sits between two clothed men. With her back to one of them, she exchanges a note to the other symbolizing infidelity or “unfaithfulness” in love. Look closely and the painting is inscribed with red letters which appear to spell either ‘che / uno possede’, meaning ‘which one person possesses’, or Ch.. / mi. p(ossede) meaning ‘which/who possesses me’ – the dots indicating illegible letters. The inscription may mean ‘she who has one man (should be satisfied)’ or possibly ‘she who has one lover (will always want another)’.

It’s likely that Witek saw the series while visiting the and it’s clear that the subject spurred emotion. Inspired, she completed this drawing in the Spring of 1986—matching the overall square composition of Veronese and mapping the outlines and recessions of the original. Her repetitive marks offer a sensuality to the surface exploring a different even complex abstraction from a narrative implies.
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Image 1: Joan Witek “D-062,” 1986, oil stick on paper, 38 1/4 x 38 in (97.2 x 96.5 cm) Collection of the artist
Image 2: Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), “Unfaithfulness,” about 1575, oil on canvas, 189.9 x 189.9 cm Collection of the (NG1318)
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11/08/2025

Witek’s “Albee Suite” now on view at
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This exhibition showcases a selection of exceptional works from Witek’s Albee Suite—watercolors made during a residency at playwright Edward F. Albee’s Montauk retreat in June 1995. Over the course of the residency, Witek set up her studio in what is still known today as “The Barn.” Evoking coastal horizons, the shifting textures of the ocean, and the poetic use of light in the landscapes of the 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain (which she was studying at the time), Witek created among other works this suite of six watercolors. At the core of this work is Witek’s continued experimental use of materials: watercolor on translucent film.

This post includes archival photographs of Witek, The Barn, and her studio.

Artwork:
“Albee Series No. 1,” 1995, watercolor on film, 15 15/16 x 18 1/16 in (40.5 x 45.8 cm)
“Albee Series No. 2,” 1995, watercolor on film, 14 13/16 x 20 in. (37.7 x 50.8 cm)
“Albee Series No. 3,” 1995, watercolor on film, 13 9/16 x 14 13/16 in. (34.5 x 37.6 cm)
“Albee Series No. 4,” 1995, watercolor on film, 14 13/16 x 20 in. (37.7 x 50.8 cm)
“Albee Series No. 5,” 1995, watercolor on film, 13 9/16 x 14 13/16 in. (34.5 x 37.6 cm)
“Albee Series No. 5,” 1995, watercolor on film, 15 x 20 in. (38.1 x 50.8 cm)
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10/16/2025

Exhibition extended!
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Joan Witek: Paintings 1969-2012
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Don’t miss the opportunity to see this extraordinary selection of works by and artist that defined herself through unique works that balance abstraction with minimal tendencies.
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10/12/2025

Choreographer responds to Witek’s “Camouflaged by Frailties” at
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Performed 10.11 and danced by
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10/03/2025

Drawing and all its experimental and technical processes has always played a vital role in the art of Joan Witek. With an emphasis on control, measured gesture, and repetition, her drawings reveal a deep engagement with process as a meditative and expressive act. She acknowledged this process as “a language of proportion and content,” she’s said—one that forms a visual continuum from one work to another.

Witek embraced drawing not just as a preparatory stage, but as a finished, autonomous form of expression. Her early graphite drawings, composed of methodical, tightly spaced lines, reflect both a minimalist aesthetic and a profound interest in the physicality of mark-making. These works, though reductive in appearance, are dense with labor and intention. Over time, she expanded her materials and methods—introducing dense pools of ink, saturated watercolor, and even collage—while maintaining a disciplined formal language grounded in drawing’s essential properties: line, surface, and rhythm.
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On view at through Oct 18
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Image 1: “Early Collage No. 2,” c.1976, collage on paper, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 inches
Image 2: “D-73,” 1983, oil pastel on paper, 35 x 42 1/2 inches
Image 3: “WC-18,” 1991, watercolor with graphite on paper, 26 x 40 inches
Image 4: “D-94 (Scribble Drawing),” Graphite on paper, 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
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09/23/2025

Now on view at
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“P(B)-17 (Black Painting No. 17),” 1976, Oil stick and graphite on unstretched canvas, 39 1/2 x 38 1/2 in (100.3 x 97.8 cm)
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The years from 1974 through 1976 are considered Witek’s most experimental period. From small precision collages to large-scale shaped works nailed to the wall the artist made her first foray into all black works returning to the configuration that most suited her—the square.

This series started as an accident in the studio, in which black paint got on the central square and which Witek then filled in. In a manner that connects her most deeply with the movement of , Witek embraced this spontaneity while also becoming attuned to the materials she was using just as equally to the means by which she used them. While developing these configurations of squares on unstretched canvas, she was also experimenting with the surface of the paint itself. Finding that oil stick alone produced too shiny and uninflected a surface, she added powdered graphite to the paint while it was still wet.

“I’ve always wanted to make incongruous things go together,” Witek said in 1984, “like squares being portraits. In the 1970s the square was so important. The square as a square was not enough for me. I loved its containment, but I wanted the square to be filled.”

The studio has catalogued seventeen works within this series of square compositions which the artist called “Black Paintings” or P(B).
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Image 2: P(B)-003 (Aluminum Square), 1976
Image 3: P(B)-004 (Black Square), 1976
Image 4: P(B)-008, 1976
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09/09/2025

Now on view at
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Untitled, 1974, oil and graphite on canvas (four parts), overall: 102 x 124 in (259.1 x 315 cm)
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In 1973, having studied at under and and at with and , Witek got her break into the New York art scene when she was awarded the Lowe Foundation Grant. The juror being . Soon after she began subletting a loft space on where she painted this work, her first monochromatic mature work Untitled (1974).
Excerpt from John Caldwell’s 1984 essay in “Joan Witek: Paintings, 1980-1983,” at :

“In 1974, Witek painted a very large work on four canvases that she arranged to surround a blank square. This may well have been her response to the shaped canvases that were beginning to appear in the work of New York artists in the early 1970s, but it was not an innovation that she would pursue for long. More significant, as it turned out, was her decision to use only black, a choice she has adhered to ever since. The painting was her first, as well, to be concerned exclusively with simple geometric forms, which she defined not by outlining and then filling in shapes but by building forms with rows of parallel lines.

[…] She remembers those early days in the section of New York that is now called Tribeca - and that period as a whole - as one of markedly increased freedom and a growing confidence in her own abilities.”

This painting was a standout of Witek’s first solo exhibition at the Aames Gallery (93 Prince Street) in 1975.
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08/28/2025

Opening in one week! First major gallery survey of works by Joan Witek
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Sept 4, 6-8p at
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In this landmark survey, experience over forty decades of Witek’s singular commitment to mark and monochrome–many works on view for the first time.
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1. Untitled [P(S)-5], 1979, oil stick and graphite on canvas, 68 x 68 in (172.172.7 cm)
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2. Untitled [P(S)-34],” 1987, oil stick and oil paint on canvas, 64 x 48 in (162.6 x 121.9 cm)
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3. “The Fable of Arachne (after Velázquez) [P-125],” 2003-2005, oil stick and Frankfurt black pigment on canvas, 78 x 60 in (198.1 x 152.4 cm)
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4. “Tulip [P-143],” 2008, gesso, Titanium white acrylic, oil stick and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
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06/04/2025

Painting in Focus: Witek’s “Laocoön” (1990)
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In a direct response to her love of Spain and its painters, in this painting Witek took to the theme of the Laocoön as painted by El Greco.

Laocoön is El Greco’s only known mythological painting. He set the scene not in Greece, but in the city of Toledo, Spain, his adopted home, and a city Witek knew well. Inspired by the recently discovered monumental Hellenistic sculpture “Laocoön and his Sons,” El Greco’s painting dates between 1610 and 1614 and depicts the Greek and Roman mythological story of the deaths of Laocoön and his two sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus.

Witek, in her reductive approach and monochromatic pallet, captures schematically El Greco’s composition even down to a near matching of size and proportions. Witek seems to focus her painting on the dramatic points of interest from the parting of the storm clouds in the sky to the rolling contour of the distant cityscape to the enforcement of the emotive physical points of contact between figures and their dying struggle with the serpents. With a few gestural marks, Witek even indicates the runaway horse which El Greco painted as reference to the Trojan Horse.

Witek made two known preliminary sketches in preparation for her master work. The first [D-051] was completed in June 1986 and the second [D-078] was completed in May 1987 one month prior to the dated completion of the painting.
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Image 1: Joan Witek, “P-36 (Laocoön),” 1987, oil on canvas, 52 x 68 in (132.1 x 172.7 cm) Collection of the Artist
Image 2: El Greco, “Laocoön,” c.1610/1614, oil on canvas, 54 1/8 x 67 15/16 in (137.5 x 172.5 cm) Collection Samuel H. Kress Collection (1946.18.1)
Image 3: Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, “Laocoön and his Sons,” early first century C.E., marble, 7’10 1/2″ high. Collection (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Photo: Steven Zucker
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02/18/2025

Acquisition News! acquires major work by Joan Witek
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The studio of Joan Witek and announce the acquisition of a major painting from 1984 by Joan Witek titled, “That He Be known and Loved and Imitated.”
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Evelyn Hankins, Head Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, was instrumental in selecting this work, the first painting to enter a major collection in Washington, DC. Of the acquisition Hankins writes:

“The first work by Joan Witek to enter the Hirshhorn’s collection, “That He Be Known and Loved and Imitated [P(S)-22],” 1984, is a stellar example of the artist’s most significant series, which was featured in her 1984 monographic show at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. This exceptional gift from the artist, in celebration of the Hirshhorn’s 50th anniversary, enables the Museum to share with its audiences a broader understanding of Witek’s work. The Hirshhorn is proud to have Witek’s distinctive exploration of the possibilities of black represented by a painting that, despite its monumental scale, evokes deeply personal emotional resonances through its subtleties of texture, gesture, and form created with oil stick and graphite.”
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According to the artist’s studio notes, this work was started January 22, 1984 and finished April 25, 1984. It was first exhibited at in March 1985. This is the fifth largest painting by the artist and is numbered twenty-two among those first works placed on stretchers (Witek had an early experimental period of working and displaying paintings unstretched).
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Joan Witek, “That He Be Known and Loved and Imitated [P(S)-022],” 1984, Oil stick and graphite on canvas, 72 3/4 x 114 3/4 in (184.8 x 291.5 cm)
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12/02/2024

Miami Art Week
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“Invisible Luggage” opens tonite, Dec 2. Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Maynard Monrow, Laura Dvorkin, Zoe Lukov & Auttrianna Ward
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Exhibition includes: Joan Witek “P(S)-4,” 1979, oil stick and graphite on canvas, 68 x 68 in (172.7 x 172.7 cm)
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The Historic Hampton House, a landmark of the Civil Rights Movement, is set to host the 2nd annual exhibition, “Invisible Luggage,” during Miami Art Week. This thought-provoking exhibition curated by a group of women artists delves into the often unseen burdens carried by individuals in areas such as social justice, gender identity and immigration.
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Through a diverse range of mediums, including painting, sculpture and installation, the artists explore the emotional and psychological weight of these experiences. The exhibition aims to shed light on the resilience and strength of those navigating these hidden realities.
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Rooted in the spirit of the Historic Hampton House, the exhibition emphasizes the importance of shelter, safety and community. By aligning contemporary artworks with the site’s storied past in music, rest, intimacy and resistance, the exhibition pays tribute to the artists who continue to inspire and challenge the status quo.
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Around 1978, Witek developed the grammar of repeated strokes organized in grid patterns. The geometric configurations of these early “stroke” paintings presented a technique unique to her identity as an artist. These were the first works on canvas which she would place on stretchers. With these pictures she “felt completely vulnerable,” she wrote. “No longer was there the escape of even the smallest border. The picture was locked in. The energy and nervousness was trapped in.” In many ways, this was Witek’s embrace and break from Mondrian, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, Ellsworth Kelly, and Richard Serra.
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12/08/2023

Joan Witek: rare works from 1986-87
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A new viewing room on
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Link in bio
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Suggestive of landscapes, in fact many of these drawings for paintings were made during visits to Spain and Italy during 1985 and 1986. The marks fracture into a binary composition. “The visual experience,” wrote critic David Carrier for “is similar to walking toward an Impressionist landscape where we view the image first and then the pigment.”
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Following her celebrated solo exhibitions at in 1984 and a year later, Witek set out to recalibrate her strict use of the color black. Personal narrative always has a place within her hard-edged abstractions. Her frequent travels to Europe where she studied the works of old masters like , and at the and in the , inspired her to break from her measured approach in picture making. In this new body of work, Witek focuses on the exigencies of place and nature by introducing all over compositions that embrace narratives discovered through the study of these old masters as well as sketches made in the landscapes that respond particularly to her visits to Spain and Italy. The result is a full-blown fracturing of her binary compositions.
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Images:
“P-34,” 1987, oil stick and oil paint on canvas, 64 x 48 in (162.6 x 121.9 cm)

“P-30 (Toledo),” 1985, oil stick and oil paint on canvas, 48 x 44 in (121.9 x 111.8 cm)

“P-39,” 1987, oil stick and oil paint on canvas, 56 x 44 in (142.2 x 111.8 cm)

“D-73 (Madrid-N.Y.),” 1986, Oil pastel on paper, frame size: 42 1/2 x 49 1/2 x 1 1/2 in (108 x 125.7 x 3.8 cm)
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Joan Witek

02/12/2026

11/08/2025

10/16/2025

10/12/2025

10/03/2025

09/23/2025

09/09/2025

08/28/2025

06/04/2025

02/18/2025

12/02/2024

12/08/2023

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