Charles White

Charles White is recognized for the richness of his graphic work and his realist mural paintings, which typically depict aspects of the history, culture, and life of African Americans. A native of Chicago, White attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1937), the Art Students League in New York (1943), and the Taller de Grafica Popular in Mexico City (1947). Beginning in 1939, he was employed by the Illinois Federal Art Project, administered by the WPA. Successive Julius Rosenwald Fellowships in 1942 and 1943 funded his travels throughout the South, expanding his experience of the musical, performance, and literary creativity of African Americans. Many of his works convey his deep respect for labor and evoke the power of murals in small format.

(http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?ID=5352 Smithsonian 1-15-09)

Born 1918, Chicago, Illinois; studied School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League of New York, Taller de Grafica, Mexico; taught at Southside Art Center, Chicago, 1939–40; Howard University, 1945; Workshop School of Advertising Art, 1950–53; now teaches at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, California; National Scholarship Award, 1937; Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, 1942–43; National Institute of Arts and Letters Grant, 1952; John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship, 1955.Important exhibitions: Art Institute of Chicago, 1938; Howard University, Washington, D.C., 1940; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 1941 ; Baltimore Museum of Art, 1944; Brooklyn Museum, 1945; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1951 ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1952; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1958; Long Beach Museum of Art, 1959; Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois, 1965.