Exceptional Works: Charles White

“I try to deal with truth as truth … in a very spiritual sense—not ‘spiritual’ meaning religiously spiritual, but ‘spiritual’ in the sense of the inner-man.”

—Charles White, 1965

Charles White

Untitled, c. 1966-1967

Oil on canvas

28 1/2 x 50 1/2 inches (72.4 x 128.3 cm)
Framed: 30 1/4 x 52 inches (76.8 x 132.1 cm)

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Charles White (1918–1979) is celebrated for his prodigious body of work that resolutely depicts the American experience, combating racial and economic injustice with images of strength and resolve.

Untitled (c. 1966–1967) is a powerful mature work. Made in the last part of White’s career, it is a rare example of an oil painting by the artist, whose health forced him to focus on drawing in the second half of his life.

Charles White, n.d. © The Charles White Archives

An artist, educator, and political activist, White was an integral part of the intellectual milieu in his hometown of Chicago, and later in New York and Los Angeles.

In 1956, White moved with his wife to California, where he became the first full-time Black faculty member at his alma mater, the Otis Art Institute. Among those he mentored there were Kerry James Marshall and David Hammons, who have testified to White’s crucial influence on their work.

Watch an excerpt from Life Model: Charles White and His Students. Courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art

White remained steadfastly committed to figuration during a period when abstraction was quickly becoming the dominant artistic paradigm.

His detailed images of individuals resonate universally, yet remain grounded by his interest in history and his personal interpretation of truth, beauty, and dignity.

Charles White, Woman in Green Dress, 1935

“All my life, I have been painting one single painting. This doesn’t mean that I’m a man without angers—I’ve had my work in museums where I wasn’t allowed to see it—but what I pour into my work is the challenge of how beautiful life can be.”

—Charles White, quoted in Kellie Jones, “Charles White: Feminist at Midcentury,” in Charles White: A Retrospective, 2018

Charles White, Awaken from the Unknowing, 1961. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin

“From the late 1950s on,” Ilene Susan Fort writes, “White typically focused on single figures. He also eschewed positioning figures in interiors or naturalistic landscapes, as he had done in [earlier works]. Devoid of most references to specific settings, his compositions usually focused on one or two figures, with White conveying situations through pose, gesture, and facial expression.”

“Charles White, Portrayer of Black Dignity”, Ebony Magazine, 1967

Charles White, Cat’s Cradle, 1964 (detail)

Untitled is one of a number of works from this period featuring a single figure against an abstract “metaphysical” background. Together with related works including Move On Up a Little Higher (1961) and Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1968), Untitled demonstrates White’s emphasis on spiritual awakening throughout his practice—the idea of reaching for the unattainable while maintaining hope and dignity.

Charles White, Move On Up a Little Higher, 1961 (detail). Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Charles White, Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968 (detail). Courtesy The Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists

“[In California] … he felt free to create symbolic images, artworks that promoted civil rights differently than literal portrayals of the struggle.… White’s drawings could produce an emotional experience akin to that of music, an effect one Los Angeles critic called ‘visual spirituals.’”

—The Smithsonian American Art Museum, “Oh Freedom! Charles White”

Charles White, Untitled, c. 1966-1967 (detail)

“What a beautiful artist Charles White was. Hand of an angel, eye of a sage.… Agency, the power to generate action and self-definition, was the crucial element White brought to the Black figure.”

—Holland Cotter, The New York Times, 2018

Installation view, Charles White: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018

Here, Kerry James Marshall speaks about the work of his mentor in Charles White: Beyond Images of Dignity. Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York

In 1967, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White was published, featuring a foreword by White’s friend, the singer Harry Belafonte, and texts by James A. Porter and Benjamin Horowitz (White’s gallerist and friend).

“In an era when the artist is expressing his detachment from the human condition by a ‘cool’ and geometric style,” Horowitz writes, “Charles White’s superb drawings challenge this lack of faith and self-involvement. Their epic quality affirms his deep concern for humanity, his love of man and life, and his belief that brotherhood is not just a catchword. Here, on his canvases, the vitality and poignancy of humankind are captured for the eye to see and the heart to feel.”

Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, 1967

“Charles White is to painting and drawing what Langston Hughes is to literature: both men direct their art to primal human concerns, to the simple problems and pleasures, the ordinary joys and sorrows of the long journey from the cradle to the grave.”

—Review of Images of Dignity, June 1967

Line drawing for Songs Belafonte Sings, 1967

“My people’s speech, their poetry, their folklore, their dance and their music.… Particularly the music affected me, the spirituals, blues, ballads, work songs, gospel songs, church songs and secular songs, and it has remained one of the most important influences on my work.”

—Charles White, “Path of a Negro Artist,” 1955

“In a period when many artists have deserted reality for the various schools of nonobjectivity and abstractionism, Mr. White has continued to work for broader horizons of human expression and to explore deeper dimensions of truth and reality.”

—Harry Belafonte, June 1967

Charles White in his studio, n.d.

“An atmosphere of stillness and quietude envelops the space in and around the work.… White kept common cause with the great masters of art history, holding up his end and passing the torch to the generations that followed him.”

—Kerry James Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” in Charles White: A Retrospective, 2018

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