Charles White | |
|---|---|
 Whitec. 1950 | |
| Born | Charles Wilbert White, Jr. (1918-04-02)April 2, 1918 |
| Died | October 3, 1979(1979-10-03) (aged 61) Los Angeles, California, US |
| Education | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
| Known for | Painting;visual art |
| Notable work | The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy |
| Movement | New Negro Movement (Chicago Black Renaissance) |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Catlett (m. 1941-1946; divorced) Frances Barrett (m. 1950-1979; his death)[1] |
Charles Wilbert White, Jr. (April 2, 1918 – October 3, 1979) was an American artist known for his chronicling ofAfrican American related subjects in paintings, drawings, lithographs, and murals. White's lifelong commitment to chronicling the triumphs and struggles of his community in representational form cemented him as one of the most well-known artists in African American art history.
Following his death in 1979, White's work has been included in the permanent collections of theArt Institute of Chicago,[2]Los Angeles County Museum of Art,The Metropolitan Museum of Art,the Whitney Museum of American Art, theNational Gallery of Art,[3]The Newark Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.[4] White's best known work isThe Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy, a mural atHampton University. In 2018, the centenary year of his birth, the first major retrospective exhibition of his work was organized by theArt Institute of Chicago and theMuseum of Modern Art.[5]
Charles Wilbert White was born on April 2, 1918, to Ethelene Gary, adomestic worker, and Charles White Sr., a railroad andconstruction worker, on theSouth Side ofChicago. Ethelene was born inMississippi and came north in theGreat Migration. She raised Charles, and as she had no child care, she would often leave him at thepublic library.[6] There, White developed an affinity for art and reading.[7] White's mother bought him a set ofoil paints when he was seven years old, which hooked White on painting. White also played music as a child, studied modern dance, and was part of theatre groups; however, he stated that art was his true passion.[citation needed]
White's mother also took him to theArt Institute of Chicago, where he would read and look at paintings—developing a particular interest in the works ofWinslow Homer andGeorge Inness. Since White had little money growing up, he often painted on whatever surfaces he could find including shirts, cardboard, and window blinds. During theGreat Depression, White tried to conceal his passion for art in fear of embarrassment; however, this ended when White got a jobpainting signs at the age of fourteen. White learned how to mix paints by sitting-in every day for a week on an Art Institute sponsored painting class that was taking place at a park near his home.[8] His mother remarried when White's father died in 1926. She married a steel mill worker who would become an abusive alcoholic, especially towards White. This experience lead him to escape into art. White had few opportunities to pursue his natural talent at this time due to the abuse and lack of resources from his household which was economically insufficient.[9] This is also the same year his mother began sending him toMississippi twice a year to his aunts, Hasty and Harriet Baines, where he would learn about his heritage and African-AmericanSouthernfolklore. White showed persistence while battling abuse and poverty. He used his own experiences, curiosity and feelings about the neglected history of African Americans to help shape a common theme within his work.[7] An early activist, as a teenager, he volunteered his talents and became the house artist at theNational Negro Congress in Chicago.[6] Later, in a union with fellow black artists, White was arrested while picketing.[7]
White won a grant during the seventh grade to attend Saturday art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. After readingAlain Locke's bookThe New Negro: An Interpretation[10] White's social views changed. He learned after reading Locke's text about important African American figures in American history, and questioned his teachers on why they were not taught to students in school, causing some to label him a "rebel problematic child."[7] White did not graduate from high school, having lost a year due to his refusal to attend class after being disillusioned with the teaching system. While he was encouraged by his art teachers to submit his art works and won various scholarships, these would later be declared an "error" and be taken away from him and given to whites instead.[7] He was admitted to two art schools, each then pulled his acceptance because of his race.[11]
White ultimately received a full scholarship to attend theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied from 1937 to 1938.[12] While there, White identifiedMitchell Siporin,Francis Chapin, andAaron Bohrod as his influences. He was an excellent draftsman, completing five drawing courses and received a final "A grade."[13] To pay the costs of art supplies, White became a cook, using his mother's instruction and recipes. White later became an art teacher at St. Elizabeth Catholic High School.[8]
In 1940, White stated in an interview, "I am interested in the social, even the propagandistic angle of painting that will say what I have to say. Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent."[14] In 1938, White was hired by the Illinois Art Project, a state affiliate of theWorks Progress Administration. His work received an extended showing at theChicago Coliseum during theExhibition of the Art of the American Negro, which was part of theAmerican Negro Exposition commemorating the 75th anniversary ofThirteenth Amendment ending slavery.[15] An important figure in what became known as theChicago Black Renaissance, White taught art classes at theSouthside Community Art Center.[6] Following his first show at Paragon Studios in Cincinnati in 1938, White's work was exhibited widely throughout the United States, including, among many others, exhibitions at the Roko Gallery, theBoston Museum of Fine Arts, and theWhitney Museum of American Art. In 1939 he produced his WPA muralFive Great American Negroes, now atHoward University Gallery of Art.[11] White also showed at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw and the Pushkin Museum. In 1976 his work was featured inTwo Centuries of Black AmericanArt,LACMA's first exhibition devoted exclusively toAfrican-American Artists.[16]
White moved toNew Orleans in 1941 to teach atDillard University. That same year, he marriedsculptor andprintmakerElizabeth Catlett, who also taught at Dillard.[15] He served in the US Army during WWII, but was discharged when he contractedtuberculosis. In 1942, White and Catlett moved toNew York City. While in New York City, White learned lithography and etching techniques at theArts Student League, taking direction from renowned artistHarry Sternberg, who encouraged him to move beyond “stylization to individuation in his figures.” It was here that White honed his technical skills and developed a more deepened vision of black society.[9]
While in New York, White and Catlett metViktor Lowenfeld, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who taught atHampton Institute in Virginia. Lowenfeld invited the couple to teach at Hampton.[17] While at the Hampton Institute, White painted one of his most well known works,The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy.[18] Measuring around 12 feet by seven feet,[19] the mural depicts a number of notable African-Americans includingDenmark Vesey,Nat Turner,Peter Salem,George Washington Carver,Harriet Tubman,Frederick Douglass, andMarian Anderson.
In 1946, White and Catlett received aRosenwald Fund Fellowship, which enabled them to train and study inMexico City. There, White and Catlett joined theTaller de Gráfica Popular, an influential print shop collective focused on using art to advance revolutionary social causes. The couple divorced shortly after moving to Mexico.[20]
Printmaking enabled White to reach a wider public more directly and allowed him to bring together his social commitment and artistic practice. Although he had long been aware of art’s social utility, with hislithographs andlinocuts he was finally able to communicate with a large, cross-national community of black workers and socialist artists, as opposed to his paintings, which were generally tied to individual purchasers. He started providing political cartoons for theDaily Worker and, in 1953, he published, in association withMasses and Mainstream, a portfolio of six reproductions of his ink-and-charcoal drawings, entitledCharles White: Six Drawings. Priced at $3—about $35.23 in 2024—this portfolio aimed at getting art to the people, a main concern for progressive artists of the period. In this respect it was a great success, and White himself acknowledged this when he learned that a group of workers in Alabama combined their savings to buy a portfolio and shared the pictures among themselves.[21]
In 1956, due to ongoing respiratory issues—potentially related to an earlier case of tuberculosis—White moved to Los Angeles for its drier, more mild climate.[6] From 1965 to his death in 1979, White taught at theOtis Art Institute inLos Angeles.[22] On faculty at Otis, he was a beacon for African American artists who came to study with him.[23] Among those he taught wereAlonzo Davis,David Hammons, andKerry James Marshall.[24]Eloy Torrez also studied under him, and considers him his greatest influence.[25] An elementary school was named after him and is located on the former Otis College campus.[26][27]
White was elected to theNational Academy of Design in 1972. Later in life, White moved toAltadena, California, where he remained until his death of congestive heart failure in 1979.
During his time at the Otis Art Institute, White was a mentor for many young Black artists, including Kerry James Marshall,Richard Wyatt Jr.,David Hammons, andAlonzo Davis.[6][9][24] Marshall reflected that “Under [his] influence I always knew that I wanted to make work that was aboutsomething: history, culture, politics, social issues. (...) It was just a matter of mastering the skills to actually do it.”[28] He also inspired a generation of socially conscious African American artists likeBenny Andrews,Faith Ringgold, andDana Chandler and regularly attended exhibitions in Black art spaces like theBrockman Gallery,Gallery 32 and the Heritage Gallery.[6][9]
White's popularity faded after his death. According to M.H. Miller, “Part of this had to do with the fact that throughout the ’80s and ’90s, artists of color were rare in an industry that endorses the work of white men at the exclusion of everyone else.” Additionally, “during his lifetime and in the decades following, thefigurative art that White championed was overshadowed by a moreabstract or conceptual style.”[6]
Shortly after White's death, a park inAltadena, California, where he spent a great deal of his later years, was renamed Charles White Park—the first park to be named after an American-born artist.[29] The park hosted the Charles White Memorial Arts Festival from 1980 through to the early 1990s, and, in 2021, Altadena Arts hosted the first-ever Altadena Arts Festival, a reiteration of the Charles White Memorial Art Festival focused on celebrating artists of color, women artists, and artists with disabilities.[30][31]
White's works and writings are featured in the collections ofAtlanta University,[32] theBarnett-Aden Gallery,Howard University,[33] theLibrary of Congress,[34][35] theMetropolitan Museum of Art,[36][37] theMinneapolis Institute of Art,[38] theOakland Museum,[39] theSmithsonian American Art Museum,[40] theNelson-Atkins Museum of Art,[41]Syracuse University and theVirginia Museum of Fine Arts.[42] The CEJJES Institute of Pomona, New York, owns a number of White's works and has established a dedicated Charles W. White Gallery.[43] In 2015, Drs. Susan G. andEdmund Gordon of Pomona, New York donated their collection of works by Charles White to theBlanton Museum of Art at theUniversity of Texas, Austin.[44]
In 1982, a retrospective exhibition of White's work was held at theStudio Museum in Harlem.[6] In the 1990s, the idea of staging a major traveling retrospective exhibition arose. Ultimately, over approximately a ten year period, staff from theArt Institute of Chicago and theMuseum of Modern Art attempted to locate various White pieces to put together an extensive exhibition of his work. The exhibition opened in Chicago in 2018, traveling to New York City and Los Angeles.[45][46]
White "was a humanist, drawn to the physical body and more literal representations of the lives of African-Americans," according to Lauren Warnecke for theChicago Tribune.[45] While this put him out of step with theabstract movement in art, the power of his work is undeniable according to theLos Angeles Times'Christopher Knight, especially White's graphic work in graphite, charcoal, crayon and ink.[47]The Washington Post art critic, Philip Kennicott finds White's work central to American art.[48] "Grace, passion, coolness, toughness, [and] beauty" mark White's work, according to Holland Cotter inThe New York Times; White had "the hand of an angel" and "the eye of a sage."[11]
In November 2019, two works by White went up for the first time inChristie's andSotheby's main-seasonal New York City contemporary art auctions. Both works,Banner for Willie J. (1976)—a portrait of White's cousin, who was killed during an armed robbery—andYe Shall Inherit the Earth (1953)—a charcoal drawing of civil rights iconRosa Lee Ingram with a child in her arms—made sales records for the artist's work.[49][50][51]
White should be a household name, even among people who don't closely follow the art world....It shouldn't be possible to tell the history of American art without White figuring squarely in the middle of it.
