Charles Wilbert White

Charles Wilbert White (American, 1918-1979)

White was a lithographer, WPA muralist, and an NAD Academician (1972). Educated at SAIC (1937), he received two Rosenwald Fellowships (1942-43) that funded study at the Art Students League and travel in the American South. Briefly married to well-known artist Elizabeth Catlett, White studied printmaking at Mexico’s Taller Graphica Popular. In 1956, after his remarriage, he moved to Los Angeles, teaching at Otis Art Institute from 1965 to his death. A Social Realist known for emotive and graphically-striking portraits of African Americans, White’s later work featured mystical or religious elements.

Important Source Material:

Barnwell, Andrea D. Charles White, San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2002.

Images of Dignity: a retrospective of the works of Charles White. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1982.

NHS