By M.H. Miller Photographs by Nicholas Calcott FEW ARTISTS ARE as closely associated with Lower Manhattan as Jack Whitten, the subject of a major retrospective opening this month at New York’s ...

But that thought is too depressing. The euphoric occasion for such melancholy reflection is “Jack Whitten: The Messenger,” a Museum of Modern Art retrospective opening Sunday (through Aug. 2).

Can a painting also be a sculpture? Find out in “Jack Whitten: The Messenger,” the retrospective of the American abstractionist on view through Aug. 2 at the Museum of Modern Art. Following ...