Charles White: The David C. Driskell Series of American Art: Volume 1.by Andrea D. Barnwell Promegranate, October 2002, $35.00, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-764-92129-0 Settle your eyes on a painting by Charles White Charles or Charlie White may refer to:
Throughout his career, White was a noble voice for his race. And in the book's foreword, renowned art curator and scholar David C. Driskell David C. Driskell ( June 7, 1931) is a scholar in the field of African American art as well as an accomplished artist in his own right. Driskell is currently an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A major publication, David C. eloquently describes the importance of White's voice, his influence and the stature of his work within the art world. Art historian Andrea D. Barnwell, director of the Spelman College Spelman College: see Atlanta Univ. Center. Spelman College Private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Ga. Its history is traced to 1881, when two Boston women began teaching 11 black women, mostly ex-slaves, in an Atlanta Museum of Fine Art, examines and relates the chapters of White's life with a quality similar to that in which the artist expressed his humanity. Her text introduces White in his youthful years in Chicago, where he began sketching and displayed artistic talent as early as age five. Barnwell illustrates White's life revealing the cultural, environmental and personal influences that stoked stoked adj. Slang 1. Exhilarated or excited. 2. Being or feeling high or intoxicated, especially from a drug. his passion. She recounts his affiliation with The Arts and Crafts arts and crafts, term for that general field of applied design in which hand fabrication is dominant. The term was coined in England in the late 19th cent. as a label for the then-current movement directed toward the revivifying of the decorative arts. Guild, his marriage to sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, his move to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and later Los Angeles, his bouts with tuberculosis, and the impact of the Civil Rights struggle on his work. While the tone of Barnwell's narrative is both amiable and edifying ed·i·fy tr.v. ed·i·fied, ed·i·fy·ing, ed·i·fies To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement. , it is the careful selection of White's artwork that adds weight to the book. Through the numerous drawings and paintings, which are beautifully reproduced here, it is clear that White's foremost desire was to celebrate his family and friends, and uplift his race. In Five Great American Negroes, which is reminiscent of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and Kitchenette Debutantes (at left), White displays his bold use of color to reflect the power embodied in his subjects. In his charcoal drawing J'Accuse, he chooses to show the quiet inner strength of a young woman, toting a basket on her back. No matter the medium, with his unique style of realism, the faces in White's portraits possess a dignity about them; their burdens and the weight of their worlds appear evident. Charles White is the first artist profiled in an upcoming series that will be overseen by Driskell. In documenting the life and work of such a seminal artist, it gives readers, particularly those interested in black artists, plenty to anticipate. |
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