Charles Wilbert White Antique Black African American Boy Lithograph Vintage 1961
IMPORTANT ANTIQUE AFRICAN AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST LITHOGRAPH BY RENOWNED AFRICAN AMERICAN PAINTER CHARLES WILBERT WHITE. THIS WORK DEPICTS A POWERFUL AND EMOTIONALLY CHARGED GRAPHITE LITHOGRAPH BY LEGENDARY AFRICAN AMERICAN MASTER CHARLES WILBERT WHITE, ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED SOCIAL REALIST ARTISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY.
KNOWN FOR HIS DEEPLY HUMANISTIC PORTRAYALS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE, WHITE'S WORK CAPTURES BOTH DIGNITY AND STRUGGLE WITH UNPARALLELED GRAVITY. THIS WORK DEPICTS A YOUNG MAN IN A MOMENT OF LABOR AND CONTEMPLATION - HIS HEAD BOWED, HANDS HOLDING THE TOOLS OF HIS WORK. WHITE'S MASTERFUL USE OF LINE AND TEXTURE CREATES A VIBRATION OF ENERGY AND SPIRIT, TRANSFORMING A SIMPLE EVERYDAY TASK INTO A SYMBOL OF ENDURANCE AND PRIDE. THE PIECE REFLECTS WHITE'S LIFELONG COMMITMENT TO PORTRAYING THE BEAUTY, LABOR, AND SOUL OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE WITH HONESTY AND HONOR. HIS WORKS ARE HELD IN MAJOR MUSEUMS INCLUDING THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, AND THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO.SIGNED AND DATED 1961 BY CHARLES WHITE. GOOD CONDITION, MILD WEAR AS SHOWN. DIMENSIONS: 21" H x 17"W.
Charles Wilbert White (1918 - 1979) was active/lived in Illinois, New York, and California. Charles White is known for Black-American figure and genre, and mural painting. Born: 1918 - Chicago, Illinois.
Died: 1979 - Los Angeles, California. Charles White was born in Chicago and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1937-38), the Art Students League (1942), and Taller de Grafica in Mexico (1946).
From 1939 to 1940, he worked as a mural painter for the Illinois Federal Arts Project. Inspired by Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and Leopold Méndez, White initially gained recognition for his social realist murals documenting milestones in black history. The drawing board was his solace in a difficult life, and he continued to paint and draw as much as possible. He entered a nationwide high-school contest and won first prize. Later, he applied for a scholarship at the Art Institute of Chicago and was granted a scholarship for full-time study.After his studies, Charles White could work professionally with other artists with the WPA. In 1939, under the auspices of the W. He painted the mural "Five Great American Negroes" for the Cleveland Branch of the Chicago Public Library. In the same years, he exhibited at Howard University.
He received a commission from the Associated Negro Press to do the mural "History of the Press" for the American Negro Exposition, Chicago. Now, the artist was able to speak about the Negro heroes of American history and their contribution to American life.Painter, Charles White would show Booker T. Washington, educator; Frederick Douglass, statesman; George Washington Carver, scientist; and Marian Anderson, singer, on the same mural. White received numerous honors and awards, including two Rosenwald Fellowships in 1942 and 1943, which enabled him to travel throughout the South. In 1944, he was drafted into the United States Army but was given a medical discharge when he developed tuberculosis. By this time, White was well-known for his meticulous draftsmanship, and in 1947, he had his first solo exhibition at the American Contemporary Art (ACA) Gallery in New York City.
From the late 1940s onward, White's drawings, paintings, and prints focused on African-American history and culture, and often depict ordinary men and women bearing difficult circumstances with dignity and calm. Porter observed, White was one of the great voices among black Americans who were among the real interpreters of the American Negro. His works are found in museums throughout the United States, Germany, Africa, and Japan. A partial list includes: Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Howard University Museum; Atlanta University Museum; Oakland Museum; Tuskegee Institute. American Federation of the Arts; Academy of Arts and Letters; Hirshhorn Museum, Taller de Grafica, Mexico City; Deutsche Academy der Künste, Berlin; Dresden Museum of Art.
In 1972, White was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design, the second African-American artist to be appointed since Henry Ossawa Tanner. Towards the end of his life, White was weakened by respiratory insufficiency. However, he continued to work until his death at the age of sixty-one. Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (Little Rock, AR).
California African American Museum (Los Angeles, CA). Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries (Atlanta, GA). Dorothy Porter Wesley Research Center, Inc (Fort Lauderdale, FL).
Flint Institute of Arts (Flint, MI). Greenville County Museum of Art (Greenville, SC). New Jersey State Museum (Trenton, NJ). Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA). Sheldon Museum of Art (Lincoln, NE).The Johnson Collection (Spartanburg, SC). The Newark Museum (Newark, NJ). The University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, MI).
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City, NY).