Painter Stanley Whitney comments on color in his paintings which are on view at Karma Gallery, New York, through July 26. Stanley Whitney: Dance the Orange will be on view at The Studio Museum Harlem from July 16 – Oct 25, 2015.

Whitney notes: "The way the 4 x 4 grid came about in my work is I wanted the composition to be simple and have the color be magical. Color has always been about space for me. You have the Claudian space of the landscape painting—a central field framed on either side by trees—or the vast allover space in a Jackson Pollock, but how could one create space in the color on a grid? How could I lay two colors so close to each other and not trap them but rather allow air for the canvas to breathe? This became a sort of preoccupation for me. Creating space within color involves experiments with density, vibrancy, saturation, and even with matteness. It is not just formal for me—color has great depth; it can bring up great emotion and immense feeling."