Born in 1937 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, David Whitburn is the first legacy artist of A.R.T.: Arist Resource Transnational, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve artists’ legacies for future generations, exchange visual culture internationally, and by doing so, promote world peace. Whitburn began drawing abstract figures for enjoyment in 1961, not believing that he was practicing art. In 1967, however, Whitburn had a one man show at the David Barnett Gallery. Barnett’s support had a profound impact on the artist, and he was spurred on to continue a life making art. As a result, before passing away in October 2025, Whitburn gave the David Barnett Gallery his entire oeuvre. The artist was meticulous about documenting his artistic output, so A.R.T. will have a thorough accounting of his body of work.
Whitburn’s art owes itself to a myriad of influences; perhaps the most recognizable are science fiction and Surrealism. His works seem to exist in an otherworldly space occupied by strange biomorphic objects. In a podcast recorded shortly before his death, Whitburn confirmed his style was influenced by the science fiction genre in general; the novel by H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds; the 1953 film after the book; and complex mathematics. In addition, the pictures are often set in barren landscapes with figures that could only exist in a Surrealist dreamscape. Other influences are as diverse as the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, the Surrealist Yves Tanguy, and the abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky.
Dreamscape II (Pictured to the right) from 1963, exhibited in the one man show, reveals Whitburn’s interest in science fiction, Surrealism, and the work of Friedrich and Kandinsky. The work presents a dreamscape, as the artist calls it in the title, with a curious rock formation placed in the center foreground, forcing the viewer to look around it to see the rest of the picture. On the left side of the rock, a shimmering orb sits on a kind of gangplank. In the left foreground, a waterfall emanates from a pool, reflecting the craggy mountain in the left middle ground. In the right foreground, a man with a cane stands, illuminated by a green aura, presumably looking into the distance, just like a solitary figure in a Friedrich painting. As in science fiction, the coexistence of the futuristic landscape in the middle ground and the nineteenth-century man in a topcoat is anachronistic, suggesting again a science fiction scenario—perhaps time travel. It is in this lone figure that Whitburn, like Friedrich, raises existential and spiritual questions in the work: What is the nature of existence? How can one possibly contemplate the infinite? How can one find the spiritual in the barren landscape? In the midst of the landscape, painted altogether differently
than the rest of the work, is an inexplicable riot of abstract form and color, which recalls the vibrant fields and spidery lines of Kandinsky’s painting in the 1930s. A Russian artist of the early twentieth century, Kandinsky was a pioneer of abstract art in which color was depicted independently of form. The artist likened painting to composing music. Like Kandinsky, the work also suggests a sonic or lyrical element. This motif appears in several of Whitburn’s works, including: Entry to Becoming, Borderland I, Impasse I, and Time Machine I.
In Impasse I (Pictured at the top of the article), Whitburn presents a surrealistic dreamscape reminiscent of Tanguy. Apart from the artist’s candy-colored palette, the strange biomorphic shapes echo those of the Surrealist painter. Whitburn has said that he was “in love with color” and preferred Tanguy’s middle period for his use of jewel tones, a departure from the subdued color scheme that dominated his body of work. Like Tanguy’s paintings, Impasse I presents an imaginary landscape that is deserted except for the curious figures and structures that populate the space. While the nature of the shapes cannot be determined, Whitburn executes them with precise illusionism. As in Dreamscape II, a lone figure appears in the center of the painting, tiny compared with the forms and abstract shapes around him. Like a figure from a René Magritte painting, he seems to be contemplating the infinite spaces beyond the vast horizon.
David Whitburn’s thought-provoking works caught the interest of gallery owner David Barnett. If it had not been for the one-man show at the David Barnett Gallery, Whitburn may have toiled in relative obscurity and may never have been a recognized artist. Fortunately, that has not been the case. And because of A.R.T.’s mission to preserve artists’ legacies, Whitburn’s work will be protected and exhibited for generations.