Charles Wilbert White, Jr. (April 2, 1918 – October 3, 1979) was an American artist known for his chronicling of African American related subjects in paintings and murals. White's best known work is The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy, a mural at Hampton University. In 2018, the centenary year of his birth, the first major retrospective exhibition of his work was organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art.
From 1964 to his death in 1979, White was on the faculty at Otis College of Art and Design (then known as Otis Art Institute), eventually serving as Chair of the Drawing Dept. While at Otis, he was a beacon for young African American artists who came to study with him, among them Alonzo Davis, David Hammons, and Kerry James Marshall.
An elementary school has been named after him and is located on the former Otis College campus.
From Wikipedia
One of White's best known works is a mural, The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy at Hampton University, a historically black college/university (HBCU.) Measuring 12x7 feet, the mural depicts a number of notable African-Americans including Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Peter Salem, George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Marian Anderson.
In 2021, the National Trust awarded a grant to Hampton to help preserve the mural. More information
Miller, M.H. (September 28, 2018). "The Man Who Taught a Generation of Black Artists Gets His Own Retrospective". New York Times.
Charles White: A Retrospective, October 7, 2018–January 13, 2019 at The Museum of Modern Art. (Good video on page.) This retrospective then travelled to LACMA, February 17-June 9, 2019.
In conjunction with the retrospective, an exhibition entitled Life Model: Charles White and his Students will be held at the Charles White Elementary School Gallery on the former Otis campus, 2401 Wilshire Boulevard, from February 16-September 19, 2019.
Charles White: A Retrospective
A revelatory reassessment of one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century Charles White (1918-1979) is best known for bold, large-scale paintings and drawings of African Americans, meticulously executed works that depict human relationships and socioeconomic struggles with a remarkable sensitivity. This comprehensive study offers a much-needed reexamination of the artist's career and legacy. With handsome reproductions of White's finest paintings, drawings, and prints, the volume introduces his work to contemporary audiences, reclaims his place in the art-historical narrative, and stresses the continuing relevance of his insistent dedication to producing positive social change through art. Tracing White's career from his emergence in Chicago to his mature practice as an artist, activist, and educator in New York and Los Angeles, leading experts provide insights into White's creative process, his work as a photographer, his political activism and interest in history, the relationship between his art and his teaching, and the importance of feminism in his work. A preface by Kerry James Marshall addresses White's significance as a mentor to an entire generation of practitioners and underlines the importance of this largely overlooked artist.
Charles White by
One of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century, Charles White (1918-1979) --with amazing spirit, vision, and brilliance--devoted both his life and work to portraying the African American community. With pencil and brush, in black and white or in color, he captured not only the poverty, strife, and despair of the black people but their strength of community, the joy of enlightenment, and the tenderness of kinship as well, rejecting the usual stereotypes of black people as inferior. His canvases, woodcuts, monumental drawings, and murals convey his strong social consciousness and impart the inherent dignity of his subjects.Andrea Barnwell chronicles the highlights of White's career, discusses several of the artist's famous works, and introduces many works from private collections that never before have been examined. Although White's works are in the collections of major museums and libraries, including Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Flint Institute of Art, his place in the annals of art history has never been fully realized.
Charles White: Black Pope by
Charles White (1918-1979) was an artist, a teacher and an activist. Widely celebrated during his lifetime for what his contemporaries termed 'images of dignity', his depictions of African American men, women and children continue to resonate today. White's commitment to figuration, to directly addressing the social and political concerns of his time through his work, and to mastering mediums that allowed for wide circulation of his art established him as a major figure, and one with significant influence on his peers and followers. Through a close examination of White's late masterwork Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man) in The Museum of Modern Art's collection, this book considers White's artistic practice and strategies. Beginning with his earliest days as an artist in Chicago in the 1940s, to time spent developing his craft in New York in the 1950s, and ending with his final decades as a revered figure in Los Angeles, Charles White: Black Pope explores the artist's career through a focused consideration of key works. By creating visually compelling, ideologically complex works that engage audiences on many levels, White established himself as a key figure of his time, one whose work continues to resonate today.
Grandpa and the Library by
Every day, young Charles White's mother takes him the Chicago Public Library, where the librarians look after him until she picks him up again after work, at six o'clock. At the library Charles looks carefully at the picture books the librarians give him and also at the people around him, later drawing what he sees on scraps of paper at home. He learns to be patient and observant--and, by watching art students painting in the park, how to mix and use oil paints. As he grows into an artist, he paints the people he sees and admires. Ultimately, Charles becomes a great artist whose works now hang in museums throughout the United States. Written and illustrated by White's son, C. Ian White, and featuring full-color reproductions of Charles White's artworks, this deeply personal story traces the childhood influences that inspired young Charles to become an artist and a teacher.
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