White, Charles

WHITE, CHARLES (1918-1979). One of the finest African American artists of the mid-twentieth century, Charles Wilbur White, Jr. was also a giant figure in visualizing African American history. He combined outstanding technical skill in painting and printmaking with a lifelong commitment to chronicling the hopes and struggles of African Americans. His artworks celebrated heroes and ordinary women and men struggling for dignity in a racist society. He achieved major national and international acclaim when Abstract Expressionism dominated the art world and African American artists were consigned to marginality.

White devoted himself to visual social commentary: “Art must be an integral part of the struggle. It can’t simply mirror what’s taking place…. It must ally itself with the forces of liberation.” His dedication continued a major current of African American art, and he reinforced the political vision of his contemporaries while also influencing a younger generation of socially-conscious African American artists. During his childhood in Chicago, White revealed artistic talent. Early on, he discovered the contributions of people of African origins. He established contacts with leading Black artists and cultural figures, eventually winning a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. This training enabled him to join the Works Progress Administration (WPA), acquiring skills there in socially-oriented mural painting.

In 1941, he married the sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett and moved with her to New Orleans. Later, at Virginia’s Hampton Institute, White painted his famous 1943 mural Contributions of the Negro to American Democracy, highlighting many key figures of African American history, including Crispus Attucks, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Paul Robeson, and Marian Anderson.

In 1947, in Mexico, White improved his printmaking technique and came further under the Marxist influence of the major postwar Mexican political artists and later the U.S. Communist Party. In 1950, following his divorce from Catlett, he exhibited his works regularly and his leftist politics gained him considerable European recognition. He also encountered racism and McCarthyism in the United States.

White moved to Los Angeles area in 1956. He became an iconic figure in the history of postwar Los Angeles art, especially among African Americans. He started teaching at the Otis Art Institute, putting him in close contact with younger artists of all races. His prolific works reinforced his growing national and international reputation.

During the 1960s and 1970s, White created numerous artworks centering on the African American experience. One focus was his emphasis on ordinary Black people. Countering the racist caricatures that dominated American visual popular culture, White portrayed his people as dignified, hard-working men, women, and children seeking opportunity and justice against overwhelming racial, political, and economic barriers.

Throughout his career, White often focused on Black women and their significance to their race and to America. He also used his art to highlight many major figures of African American history, women and men known generally in African American circles but usually omitted in traditional educational and media institutions.

He also had a significant role as a mentor to both his artistic contemporaries and to younger generations of African American artists, especially in the Los Angeles area. White heavily influenced his students technically, intellectually, and politically. He took close personal interest in younger artists, providing guidance and encouragement in an art world that was indifferent, even hostile, to artists of African descent. His personal mentorship of many artists helped propel them to strong artistic stature. Together with his majestic artworks, he ensured his enduring legacy as a Black visual and cultural icon.

Barnwell, Andrea. Charles White. Beverly Hills, CA: Pomegranate, 2002.

Bearden, Romare and Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.

Horowitz, Benjamin. Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White. Los Angeles:Ward
Ritchie Press, 1967.

Lewis, Samella. African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Oehler, Sarah and Esther Adler, editors. Charles White: A Retrospective. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, distributed by Yale University Press, 2018.

Website: Charles White, American, 1918-1979. MoMA Arts and Artists. 14 Works Online. https://www.moma.org/artists/6339.