American, 1918 - 1979
White's career in art could probably be said to have begun with the gift of a set of oil paints on his seventh birthday. A scholarship to the school of the Art Institute of Chicago gave him his first opportunity at formal instruction in 1937. His work was first shown at the the Institute's annual exhibition the following year. In 1939 and 1940, under the Federal Arts Projects, he executed the mural Five Great American Negroes, George Cleveland branch of the Chicago Public Library; and by the commission of the Associated Negro Press, a mural, History of the Negro Press for the American Negro Exposition, Chicago. In 1942-43 he did a mural, The Contribution of the American Negro to American Democracy for Hampton Institute, Virginia; this project was carried out with the support of a Julius Rosenwald fellowship, and study of mural techniques with Harry Steinberg at the Art Students League in New York.
Drafted into the Army in 1944, his service was cut short by his having developed tuberculosis. The following year he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Howard University, Washington, D. C. A long-held wish to visit Mexico was realized in 1947. There White met the great muralists David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, and attended the Esmeralda Escuela del Arte, and the Taller de Grafica, in Mexico City. This experience had a profound affect not only on the stylistic character of his art, but on its motivation. While his work had been appearing in group shows at museums around the country since 1941, 1947 also brought his first one-man show, held at the Barnett-Aden Gallery in Washington.
Back in America, and settled in New York, in 1949, White and others formed the Committee for the Negro Arts in New York City, a group concerned with assisting Black artists. He had one-man shows at New York University and at Hunter College of the City University of New York that year. The next year he began teaching at the Workshop School of Advertising Art, and exhibited the first to many times at New York's A. C. A. Gallery. In 1951 he made a tour of Europe. Because of poor health, White moved to Los Angeles in 1956, where he remained resident for the rest of his life. In 1965 he began an association as a teacher with the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, that was sustained throughout his remaining years. The twenty years from 1959 to his death were filled with honors, awards, and exhibitions from all parts of America and Europe--among them the Academy's Obrig prize in 1971 and 1975, and Maynard prize in 1972.
White, who worked extensively in lithography and drawing, as well as painting, portrayed only Blacks--with a skill and a restrained dignity and respect for their character and heritage that won him wide-ranging admiration. He told an interviewer for the Negro History Bulletin (quoted in the New York Times at White's death) "I like to think that my work has a universality to it. I deal with love, hope, courage, freedom, dignity--the full gamut of human spirit. When I work, though, I think of my own people. That's only natural. However, my philosophy doesn't exclude any nation or race of people."
Drafted into the Army in 1944, his service was cut short by his having developed tuberculosis. The following year he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Howard University, Washington, D. C. A long-held wish to visit Mexico was realized in 1947. There White met the great muralists David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, and attended the Esmeralda Escuela del Arte, and the Taller de Grafica, in Mexico City. This experience had a profound affect not only on the stylistic character of his art, but on its motivation. While his work had been appearing in group shows at museums around the country since 1941, 1947 also brought his first one-man show, held at the Barnett-Aden Gallery in Washington.
Back in America, and settled in New York, in 1949, White and others formed the Committee for the Negro Arts in New York City, a group concerned with assisting Black artists. He had one-man shows at New York University and at Hunter College of the City University of New York that year. The next year he began teaching at the Workshop School of Advertising Art, and exhibited the first to many times at New York's A. C. A. Gallery. In 1951 he made a tour of Europe. Because of poor health, White moved to Los Angeles in 1956, where he remained resident for the rest of his life. In 1965 he began an association as a teacher with the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, that was sustained throughout his remaining years. The twenty years from 1959 to his death were filled with honors, awards, and exhibitions from all parts of America and Europe--among them the Academy's Obrig prize in 1971 and 1975, and Maynard prize in 1972.
White, who worked extensively in lithography and drawing, as well as painting, portrayed only Blacks--with a skill and a restrained dignity and respect for their character and heritage that won him wide-ranging admiration. He told an interviewer for the Negro History Bulletin (quoted in the New York Times at White's death) "I like to think that my work has a universality to it. I deal with love, hope, courage, freedom, dignity--the full gamut of human spirit. When I work, though, I think of my own people. That's only natural. However, my philosophy doesn't exclude any nation or race of people."
