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Charles Wilbert White Auction Price Results

Charles Wilbert White (1918-1979)  Please Register/Login to access your Artfact Alerts

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Henry.

Lot 13: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Henry.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Henry. Linoleum cut on tissue-thin Japan paper, mounted on board, 1944. 305x229 mm; 12x9 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated, numbered 4/12 and inscribed "Prints" in pencil, lower margin. A very good, dark impression of this extremely scarce print. Provenance: The Barnett Aden Gallery, Washington, DC, John and Mediel Hoskins (brother-in-law and sister of Delilah Pierce); the estate of Delilah Pierce; thence by descent to the current owner. We have found no other impressions of this print at auction in the past 20 years.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass.

Lot 17: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass. Lithograph on heavy cream wove paper, 1951. 578x419 mm; 22 3/4x16 1/2 inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled, dated and numbered "50/P" in pencil, lower margin. A very good, dark impression. Gedeon Ea11.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown.

Lot 19: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown. Charcoal on Strathmore watercolor board, 1938. 763x552 mm; 30x21 3/4 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the artist; private collection; the collection of George and Joyce Wein, New York. Illustrated: Andrea D. Barnwell, Charles White. The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume I, plate 6, p. 21. One of Charles White's earliest WPA drawings to come to auction, John Brown is also one of his largest surviving pre-1940 drawings. This bold rendering of the infamous Abolitionist leader holding the end of a rifle is a study for the now lost 1940-41 Federal Art Project mural, Technique to Serve the Struggle. Having just graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago, Charles White was only 20 when he joined the easel division of the Chicago WPA in April, 1938. White typically drew studies of every figure for each mural project. The tempera mural was an ambitious two-panel project (13x20 feet each) for the Cleveland Branch of the Chicago Public Library. The panels were divided by a doorway into Northern and Southern scenes, crowded with figures that embody the African-American struggle. In Rethinking Social Realism, illustrated with an archival photograph of the mural, Professor Stacy I. Morgan of the University of Alabama is one of the few historians to document these murals and analyze the progessive nature of White's political message. We have found only two other known studies for this mural project--a drawing of the guitar player and a painting, both in private collections. Sidney Finkelstein, in his Charles White Ein Künstler Amerikas, includes a photograph of Charles White painting the John Brown figure in the left-hand panel. White was also photographed by fellow Chicago WPA artist Gordon Parks in front of the John Brown figure in the mural. This bold drawing also shows the influence of the Mexican Muralists of whom White first became aware during these early WPA days. After his 1942 Rosenwald scholarship to study in Mexico, where he studied with the muralist David Siqueiros, Charles White later returned to this subject with his John Brown lithograph in 1949.

Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Folksinger.

Lot 20: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Folksinger.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Folksinger. Linoleum cut on thin Japan paper, 1958. 907x455 mm; 35 3/4x18 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Edition of 25. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed with his "return address" at "1765 Summit Ave., Pasadena, CA," in ink on the brown backing paper. A superb impression with bright contrasts. Gedeon Eb 12. Provenance: private Los Angeles collection. We have not found another impression of Folksinger at auction in the past 25 years. While Gedeon notes the edition size is 25, this large linoleum cut is very scarce--we have been able to locate only two other impressions in private collections. In this iconic print, Charles White reinterprets his 1957 Folk Singer ink drawing in the collection of Harry Belafonte. In the late 1950s, White made musicians, singers and actors the subjects of his work--from the famous to the anonymous. While they had met in the early 1950s through their membership in the Committee for the Negro Arts, White and Belafonte became close friends and collaborated often once White moved to California. Andrea Barnwell describes how "with a generous gift from their dear friend Harry Belafonte," Frances and Charles White rented a house from friends on Summit Avenue in Pasadena in 1956 before they moved to nearby Altadena. Belafonte wrote the introduction to White's 1958 ACA Gallery exhibition catalogue when he first showed Folk Singer, and the foreword to the 1967 book Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White. In the latter, Belafonte describes the profound connection he made to the work of Charles White: "You are enriched by the experience of having known Charles White's people, who are like characters from a great novel that remain with you long after the pages of the book have been closed." Through White's hand, one can also know this great singer. They also worked together on Belafonte's 1962 book Songs Belafonte Sings, which White illustrated. Barnwell p. 61; Horowitz p. 1.

Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

Lot 21: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return. Lithograph on wove paper, 1946. 405x344 mm; 16x12 1/4 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 25. Signed, titled, dated '45 and inscribed "25/prints" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by the artist at El Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. A superb, very dark impression of this very scarce print. This is only the second impression of this lithograph to come to auction; the first was sold at Swann Galleries on February 4, 2007. There are only two other known impressions - in The David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland, and Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC. Provenance: ACA Gallery, New York; private Connecticut collection. Awaiting His Return was printed in Mexico in 1946 after Charles White finished his military service and the end of the war permitted a safe passage abroad. This impression is dated 1945, and others have even been dated previously to 1943, presumably due to the wartime subject - an African-American woman seated near a banner of the Gold Star, a husband's or son's medal of bravery. In Mexico, White was influenced by a close working relationship with many of the great modern muralists and painters. While studying at the Escuela de Pintura y Sculptura, "The Esmeralda", he lived in the same residence as David Siqueiros and worked alongside Pablo O'Higgins and Diego Rivera at the Taller. White had previously studied lithography under Harry Sternberg at the Artists Student League in New York during the first of his back-to-back Julius Rosenwald scholarships in 1942. A History of African-American Artists, Romare Bearden and Harry B. Henderson, Jr., p. 411, Gedeon Ea4.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Collection of 31 early sketchbook drawings.

Lot 22: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Collection of 31 early sketchbook drawings.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Collection of 31 early sketchbook drawings. 4 - Portrait of a Young Woman, pen and ink and wash * 6 - Crowd Scene, with watercolor wash * 7 - Bare-chested Man * 9 - Reclining Woman in Trousers * 10 - Profile of a Man, dry brush and ink * 18 - Reclining Nude * 19 - Standing Nude from Rear * 20 - Head of a Man * 21 - Profile of a Man, blue pen and ink * 22 - Cats. Titled in pencil, upper left * 23 - Dancers * 25 - Standing Nude, pen and ink over pencil * 28 - Seated Man with Long Hair at Table pen and ink over pencil with watercolor wash * 33 - Women''s High Heeled Shoes * 35 - Hand * 36 - Woman Reading with Glasses * 39 - Drawing for Block Print (Two Women with Mask) * 40 - Design for Block Print (Man with Accordion and Woman). [Gedeon also illustrates and describes a block print for which this drawing is apparently a design for Untitled (Musicians), circa 1937-38. See Gedeon Eb1] * 50 - Two Profile Studies * 55- Woman in Long Dress56 - Young Woman with Hand at Mouth * 58 - Dental Exam * 65 - Seated Nude * 70 - Standing Nude with Hand on Hip. Each approximately 251x192 mm; 9 7/8x7 1/2 inches (sheets). Each numbered in pencil, lower right. Help! Chicago on newsprint taped to wove paper at corners, with a pencil portrait of a man on the verso * Head Study * Woman in Blue Dress, watercolor * Woman in Dress, watercolor * Standing Nude with Arms Raised to the Left. Inscribed "Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so - Samuel Butler" in pencil, verso * Woman Seated with Glass. Each with the artist''s estate ink stamp, lower right * Portrait of a Young Woman. Signed and dated 35 in pencil, lower right. Each circa 1935-38. Each in pencil (unless specified otherwise). Each disbound from sketchbooks. Various sizes and conditions. Provenance: Ex-collection the artist; Benjamin Horowitz, Los Angeles. As an avid draughtsman, White presumably filled numerous sketchbooks during and after his intensive period of study at the Chicago Art Institute. However, there are few surviving examples. Lucinda Gedeon cites the numbered drawings in this collection as coming from his first known notebook. Charles White was determined to become an artist despite his family''s tight finances, and early rejections from discriminatory art schools. White won a $240 scholarship to attend the Chicago Art Institute, entering in 1937. White completed the two year course in one year, despite often walking the 60 blocks home to save money and working as a cook and valet. Upon his graduation in 1938, he soon qualified to join the easel and mural division of the Federal Art Project in Illinois. White learned quickly from the Chicago muralists Mitchell Siporin and Edward Millman until he received permission for his own WPA mural project in 1939, "Five Great American Negroes". Gedeon Sketchbook A, p. 402-403.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) After Attempting to Escape, Frederick Douglass was Put in Jail.

Lot 22: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) After Attempting to Escape, Frederick Douglass was Put in Jail.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) After Attempting to Escape, Frederick Douglass was Put in Jail. Pen and ink over pencil with gouache corrections, 1964. 407x280 mm; 16x11 inches. Initialed in ink, lower right. Exhibited at Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, 1968; Spelman College Atlanta, 1975; Otis Parsons Art Institute, New York, October 1 - December 31, 1979 and the Biennale of Graphic Design, Brno, Czech Republic, with the labels on the frame back. Illustrated in Philip Sterling and Rayford Logan, Phd., Four Took Freedom: The Lives of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Robert Smalls, and Blanche K. Bruce, p. 40. Gedeon D198. One of a series of 19 pen and ink drawings by the artist for this volume.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Two pencil drawings.

Lot 23: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Two pencil drawings.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Two pencil drawings. Costume Design, Haitian Ballet * Untitled (Costume Design with Plant Motif). Both on thin vellum, circa 1937-38. Both 300x225 mm; 11 7/8x9 inches. Both with numerous color and material notations in pencil. Both folded in half with handling creases at the sheet edges. Provenance: Ex-collection the artist; Benjamin Horowitz, Los Angeles.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) General Moses (Harriet Tubman).

Lot 23: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) General Moses (Harriet Tubman).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) General Moses (Harriet Tubman). Chinese ink on 2 joined sheets of illustration board, 1965. 1193x1727 mm; 47x68 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right. Exhibited at ACA Galleries, New York, NY, 1965; Charles White Drawings, The Gallery of Art, College of Fine Arts, Howard University, Washington, D.C., September 22 - October 25, 1967, The Carl Murray Fine Arts Center, Morgan State College, Baltimore, MD, November 1 - 24, 1967 and The Art Gallery, Ballentine Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, TN. Illustrated in Benjamin Horowitz, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, p. 101,and Andrea D. Barnwell, Charles White. The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume I, p. 87. Gedeon D173. Charles White has taken realism to great heights in this powerful portrait, one of the most impressive of his large scale drawings of the mid-1960s. The monumental size of General Moses reinforces the heroic realism of the subject. Lucinda Gedeon made the association between the large scale of Charles White's drawings and the strength of his figurative statement. She states "White's affirmative statement of black dignity represented in these figures is strengthened by the sheer size of the drawings (often as large as three by four feet), and their unadulterated realism." In the era of the wall-sized painting of Abstract Expressionism, Charles White elevated the genre of figurative drawing with his own life-size statements. Charles White also gives the drawing an intensity with the density of the line and mark making. Gedeon describes how White used all types of drawing media in a variety of applications using "Q-tips, Kleenex, rags, balsa wood, brushes, and a whole slew of other things." White further described the density obtained through steady, methodical application used in these large drawings - "I begin to work lightly in halftones which I fix very strongly. I then work from that and fix another layer as I keep building up the composition. In this way, when I work with conte and charcoal, I can get very strong blacks because of the chemical reaction of the fixative to the medium that I'm working on top of. Using this method I can get a far more extensive range of values than I would ordinarily." Gedeon, p. 47. This density of line creates the volumetric forms in the craggy outcrop and the seated figure. The figure appears concrete and the lines combine to resonate with intensity. Intensity in this drawing also comes from the subject's both heroic and human stature. Known as "the Moses of her people," Harriet Tubman epitomized courage and determination. She overcame all obstacles to lead hundreds out of slavery - and despite many manhunts and ransoms, she was never caught. She epitomizes the strength and courage of an era where African-Americans overcame the greatest suffering and obstacles. She gazes out to the viewer at the beginnning of another great struggle - the battle for Civil Rights in the mid-1960s. In 1965 when this work was commissioned, race riots broke out in many cities including Los Angeles - the Watts section was occupied by the U.S. National Guard. She sat as a role model to the next generation and an ever-present reminder of the historic struggle in the company's lobby. Charles White himself started to mentor the young artists of the city that year as he began teaching at the Otis Arts Institute and assisted with the Saturday morning classes at Golden State. Indeed, every aspect of this important drawing reinforces its impact - the size, the subject, the composition and the realism of the drawing itself. General Moses appears almost as a force of nature - as solid and unmovable as the massive rock she sits on.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Native Son.

Lot 23: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Native Son.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Native Son. Tempera on cream cardstock, 1941. 215x279 mm; 8 1/2x11 inches. Signed and dated in tempera, lower right. Provenance: John Gray, Chicago; private collection, New York. With a handwritten label inscribed with the owner's name and the title. One of the earliest paintings by the artist to come to auction, Native Son is a striking social-realist work inspired by the popular 1940 Richard Wright novel of the same name. A pen and ink drawing from 1942, also entitled Native Son, is in the collection of Howard University. It is also closely related to the 1941 oil painting, Spiritual, in the collection of the Southside Community Art Center, and the 1942 oil painting, This, My Brother, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, which is also related to a literary work--the same-titled novel by John Rood. In each of these works, White relates the themes of entrapment and helplessness of African Americans in a solitary, heroic figure raising his exaggerated forearms.

Condition Report: Very small pieces of paper and glue adhered at the top edge of the painting from an old over mat. The 1- to 1 1/2- margins have glue and paper remants around the image. The back of the cardstock is completely skinned - with layers removed where it once was apparently laid down. Some of the margins are subsequently thin with just the top layer of cream paper. Otherwise in good condition, with no scratches or losses in the image. All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude.

Lot 24: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude. Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1937-40. 252x203 mm; 10x8 inches. With the artist''s estate ink stamp, lower right. Provenance: Ex-collection Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the gallery labels on the frame back.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man).

Lot 24: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man). Etching, circa 1940. 151x125 mm; 5 7/8x4 7/8 inches, wide (full) margins. Proof, before the numbered edition of 10 with aquatint. A good, dark impression with warm plate tone and inky plate edges of this very scarce proof. This is the earliest known etching by Charles White we have found. We located only one other impression - with aquatint and printed in a numbered edition of 10 at Aaron Galleries in Chicago, which is dedicated to Truman K. Gibson, Jr., the Executive Director of the 1940 American Negro Exposition in Chicago where White first received national recognition for his work. This lot is the same impression that was sold at Swann Galleries on March 10, 2005. Not in Gedeon.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man).

Lot 24: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Head of a Man). Charcoal and pencil on thin cream wove paper, circa 1937-40. 250x203 mm; 10x8 inches. With the artist's estate signature ink stamp, lower right. Provenance: the artist; Ben Horowitz, Los Angeles; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles; private collection, New York; private collection. This wonderful portrait and study in chiarusco comes from one of the artist's early sketchbooks during or shortly after his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Condition Report: Age toning at the extreme sheet edges, pale time stain overall. Otherwise in very good, clean conditon. Mounted at linen tape at each of the verso corners. All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass Lives Again (The Ghost of Frederick Douglass).

Lot 26: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass Lives Again (The Ghost of Frederick Douglass).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Frederick Douglass Lives Again (The Ghost of Frederick Douglass). Pen and ink over pencil on illustration board, 1949. 508x762 mm; 20x30 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower left. Gedeon D54. Provenance: ACA Gallery, New York; private collection, New York, 1950; private collection, Philadelphia, 1988. This drawing's location was recorded as unknown in 1980 at the time of Lucinda Gedeon's catalogue raisonné. A close variant of this drawing is in the collection of the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ. The same size and year, Frederick Douglass has in the lower left a tighter, smaller group of figures, all men in suits, likely a group of lawyers involved in Jim Crow cases. Exhibited: ACA Gallery, New York, February 12 - 25, 1950. Illustrated: Daily Worker, New York, Sunday, February 12, 1950; Sidney Finkelstein, Charles White: Ein Künstler Amerikas, pl. 16; Jewish Currents, February 1963, cover. An extraordinary example of Charles White's early drawing, Frederick Douglass Lives Again is one of a series of the pen and ink drawings recording the celebrated trials of African-Americans victimized during the Jim Crow era. White shows a mastery of cross-hatching in each expressive face of this dynamic composition. The towering figure of Douglass and the compressed space reflect techniques used in his mural painting, particularly his The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in American at Hampton University, 1933. White was also translating the African-American experience through the earlier model of the great Mexican muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros. In Frederick Douglass Lives Again, White continues his depiction of ordinary people on a heroic scale. Along with The Trenton Six, The Ingram Case and Open Gate (Liberation), White chronicled the legal plights of African-Americans, and the greater cause for justice and equality. White was particularly politically active at this point in his career. Reproductions of these drawings appeared in portfolios published by the Workshop for Graphic Art in New York, and in such progressive periodicals as The Daily Worker. White had his first exhibition at ACA Gallery in 1947, and was now regularly exhibiting in New York with other socially and politically conscious artists such as Philip Evergood, William Gropper and Robert Gwathmey.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Head.

Lot 27: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Head.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Head. Lithograph, 1967. 267x178mm; 10 1/2x7 inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 49/125 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Gemini, Los Angeles, with their stamp and numbered 67-109 lower left, verso. A very good impression. This print was issued with the deluxe edition of Benjamin Horowitz's Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White. Gedeon Ea20.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) The Brother.

Lot 28: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) The Brother.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) The Brother. Ink on thick cream illustration board, 1968. 1442x814 mm; 56x32 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right. From the I Have a Dream series. Exhibited at Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1968 and Two Centuries of Black American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976, (this exhibit traveled to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art) with the labels on the frame back. Illustrated in the I Have a Dream portfolio, 1976, plate no. 4, a portfolio of reproductions of the artist's works. Gedeon D240. Gedeon entitles this work Brother II, as the second and final study of this subject; Brother I is in oil wash and charcoal, estate-stamped and is in the artist's estate. See Gedeon D239.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) El Pensador (The Thinker).

Lot 28: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) El Pensador (The Thinker).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) El Pensador (The Thinker). Lithograph, 1946. 514x406mm; 20 1/4x16 inches, full margins. Proof, from an edition of an unknown size. Printed by the artist at Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. A very good impression of this extremely scarce print. We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years. Gedeon Ea5.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Nocturne.

Lot 28: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Nocturne.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Nocturne. Etching on heavy cream wove paper, 1969. 324x351 mm; 12 3/4x13 7/8 inches, full margins. Trial proof, aside from the edition of 15 with the estate stamp. Estate stamp signature lower right. Titled, dated and inscribed "Tr./Pf." in pencil, lower left. Printed by Joseph and Hugo Mugnani. A very good impression of this scarce print. We have not found another impression of this print at auction in the past 20 years. Another impression can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gedeon Ec3.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers.

Lot 29: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers. Lithograph on cream wove paper, 1949. 296x276 mm; 11 5/8x10 3/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Basingwerk watermark. Edition of approximately 30. Signed, titled, dated and dedicated in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Robert Blackburn, New York. A superb impression of this scarce print. In 1949, Bob Blackburn was Charles White's primary printer in New York. The original charcoal drawing, the basis for the print, is found in the Walter O. Evans Collection. The drawing was inspired by a poem of the same title by Margaret Walker about the sustaining power of African-American religious faith. Gedeon Ea8.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude.

Lot 29: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Female Nude. Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1937-40. 252x203 mm; 10x8 inches. With the artist's estate ink stamp, lower right. Provenance: Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the gallery labels on the frame back.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Hope Imprisoned.

Lot 30: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Hope Imprisoned.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Hope Imprisoned. Tempera on cream wove paper, 1946. 660x510 mm; 26x20 inches. Signed and dated in tempera, lower right. Provenance: private New York collection. This striking, early work on paper is the first significant painting by Charles White to come to auction. It is closely related in composition to Woman of Sorrows, colored inks, 1947, Howard University, and in paint handling to Indian Woman, tempera, 1946, private collection (see Finkelstein, ill. 13-14). These and other works such as Mater Dolorosa, oil on canvas, 1946, ACA Galleries, each portray an isolated and devastated woman. In the mid- to late 1940s, Charles White popularized the plight of the downtrodden depicted with graphic social realism. These works of anonymous subjects are imbued with an intense level of emotion. The everyday heroism of African Americans overcoming the great struggles of the pre-Civil Rights era are found in these strong, dignified figures. At the same time, White was fighting the effects of tuberculosis, which he contracted during his brief army service in 1944. Despite the upheaval of his convalescence and the war itself, this was an incredibly important creative period for the artist. By the end of 1946, he traveled to Mexico to study lithography, where he created similar images such as the well-known lithograph Awaiting His Return, another version of a despondent, solitary woman. The following year, White had achieved his first one-man exhibition at ACA Gallery in New York.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Man and Woman.

Lot 30: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Man and Woman.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Man and Woman. Woodcut on tissue-thin Japan paper, 1951. 445x535 mm; 17 1/2x21 inches, wide margins. Artist's proof. Edition size unknown. Recently backed on mulberry paper, with losses, thin spots and creases in the margins. A very good impression of this very scarce print. We have found no other recorded impressions of this print apart from one in the artist's estate in 1981. According to Gedeon, the edition size is "undetermined," and there was only one estate stamped impression. White did a series of three such large woodcuts that were reproduced in Finkelstein's 1955 volume Charles White: Ein Künstler Amerikas; Man and Woman is illustrated in figure 4 on pg. 61. White also exhibited this print at ACA Gallery, New York, in the solo exhibition To My Negro Sisters on February 12-24, 1951. Gedeon Eb7.

Condition Report: The print is on a tissue-thin sheet of Japan paper, which was laid down and which has since been removed. The print, which has been professionally cleaned and restored, has been expertly backed on mulberry paper. Due to the fragile nature of the Japan paper, there are many areas of thin spots and scattered losses in the margins and skinning. There is extensive creasing in the margins of the print, not effecting the image itself. Many of the creases have been flattened but are slightly discolored. There are two small thin diagonal spots with wear effecting the image lower right; otherwise, the image remains untouched, and is a very dark impression. Lucinda Gedeon's catalogue raisonné states the edition is "undetermined" and lists one estate stamped impression. All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

Lot 32: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return. Lithograph, 1946. 402x310 mm; 15 3/4x12 1/4 inches, wide margins. Proof, aside from an edition of approximately 25. Printed by the artist at the Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. A very good, dark impression of this very scarce print. Provenance: gift from the artist; private collection, New York, thence by descent to the current owner. Awaiting His Return was printed in Mexico in 1946 after Charles White finished his military service and the end of the war permitted a safe passage abroad. This impression is dated 1945, and others have even been dated as early as 1943, presumably due to the wartime subject--an African-American woman seated near a banner of the Gold Star, a husband's or son's medal of bravery. This is the first unsigned proof, and only the third impression of this lithograph, to come to auction. We have located only two other known impressions--in The David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland, and Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC. Gedeon Ea4.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Joven (Youth).

Lot 33: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Joven (Youth).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Joven (Youth). Lithograph, 1946. 343x273 mm; 13 1/2x10 3/4 inches, wide margins. Proof, from an edition of an unknown size. Printed by the artist at the Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. A very good, dark impression of this very scarce print. Provenance: estate of the artist Allen Wolf, New York; private collection, Seattle. We have not found another impression of this print at auction in 20 years. We have located only one other impression in the collection of Clark Atlanta University, illustrated in Le Falle/Collins's In the Spirit of Resistance. According to Lucinda Gedeon, another impression is illustrated in the album El Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico, published in 1949. Gedeon Ea7.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter II.

Lot 36: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter II.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter II. Color lithograph, 1977. 762x559 mm; 30x22 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 14/30 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Ed Hamilton. A very good impression with bright colors. Another copy of this print can be found in the collection of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA. We have not found another impression of this print at auction in the past 20 years. Gedeon Ea32.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II.

Lot 37: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II. Color lithograph, 1978. 636x877 mm; 25x35 1/4 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 5/71 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by David Panosh. Published by Hand Graphics, Ltd., Santa Fe, with the blind stamp lower right. A very good impression with strong colors. Gedeon Ea35.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Young Worker.

Lot 40: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Young Worker.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Young Worker. Linoleum cut in brown and black on thin cream Japan paper, laid down to board, 1954. 768x572 mm; 30 1/4x22 1/2 inches, wide (full?) margins. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "To Walter With My Warmest Regards" in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly inked impression of this extremely scarce print. We have not found another impression of this print at auction in 20 years. Charles White made two versions of this print; this is the second, with an added landscape as the background. Gedeon illustrates the other version. There is also a 1953 crayon drawing, Young Farmer, of the same subject. According to Gedeon, the print was also titled Young Farmer, and was reproduced in Tribune Magazine, February 17, 1954. Gedeon Eb9.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mexican Boy.

Lot 44: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mexican Boy.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mexican Boy. Pen and brown ink, over pencil and with gouache corrections, on thick cream wove paper, 1946. 340x163 mm; 13 3/8x6 1/2 inches. Signed with black ink and inscribed "Mexico" and dated in brown ink, lower right. This drawing appears to be the matrix for the same-titled reproductive lithograph. The print was included with Our War and Mexican Woman in the portfolio Yes, the People published in 1948. Charles White worked with the Workshop of Graphic Art to produce both the portfolios Yes, the People and Negro USA in 1949. Both are in the collection of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Arts, Boston. The drawing displays the gouache corrections for printing, and the rest of the foot which was cropped out of the print. Lizetta LeFalle-Collins and Shifra Goldman, In the Spirit of Resistance, p. 154.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Jessica.

Lot 44: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Jessica.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Jessica. Etching printed in brown on cream wove paper, 1970. 290x613 mm; 113/8x24 1/8 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 2/25 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Joseph and Hugo Mugnani, Los Angeles. A very good impression with warm plate tone of this scarce print . We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years. There is an impression in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gedeon Ec6.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

Lot 45: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Awaiting His Return. Lithograph on wove paper, 1946. 405x344 mm; 16x12 1/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Proof, aside from the numbered edition of approximately 25. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. Printed by the artist at El Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. A very good impression of this extremely scarce print. We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years, and only two known impressions in The David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland, and Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC. Provenance: Gift of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner. Awaiting His Return was printed in Mexico in 1946 after Charles White finished his military service and the end of the war permitted a safe passage abroad. This print has been previously dated to 1943, presumably due to the wartime subject - an African-American woman seated near a banner of the Gold Star, a husband or son''s medal of bravery. White had made a less optimistic interpretation of this subject in 1946 in the pen and ink drawing, The Return of the Soldier, with three black G.I.s being roughed up by a menacing police officer and a klansman. In Mexico, White was influenced by a close working relationship with many of the great modern muralists and painters. While studying at the Escuela de Peintura y Scultura, "The Esmeralda", he lived in the same residence as David Siqueiros, and worked alongside Pablo O''Higgins and Diego Rivera at the Taller at the time. White had previously studied lithography under Harry Sternberg at the Artists Student League in New York during the first of his back-to-back Julius Rosenwald scholarships in 1942. A History of African-American Artists, Romare Bearden and Harry B. Henderson, Jr., p. 411, Gedeon Ea4.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Matriarch.

Lot 46: CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Matriarch.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Matriarch. Etching on heavy cream wove paper, 1969. 280x354 mm; 11x13 7/8 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 6/18 ED. in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Joe and Hugo Mugnani, Los Angeles. Ex-collection Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label on the frame back. A very good impression of this scarce print. Gedeon Ec4.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers.

Lot 52: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) We Have Been Believers. Lithograph on cream wove paper, 1949. 296x276 mm; 11 5/8x10 3/4 inches, wide margins. Edition of approximately 30. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Robert Blackburn, Printmaking Workshop, New York. 4 1/2-inch repaired tear, upper margin, just into the forehead of the left figure; sheet backed with thin Japan paper. A very good, dark impression of this very scarce print. We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years, and only two other known impressions in public collections, in the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Archives and Collection, The Library of Congress, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. In 1949, Robert Blackburn was Charles White''s primary printer in New York. The original charcoal drawing, the basis for the print, is in the Walter O. Evans Collection, Detroit. The drawing was inspired by a poem of the same title by Margaret Walker about the sustaining power of African-American religious faith. Gedeon Ea8.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown.

Lot 53: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) John Brown. Lithograph, 1949. 380x260 mm; 15x10 1/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Robert Blackburn, Printmaking Workshop, New York. A very good, dark impression of this very scarce print. We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years, and only two known impressions, in the collections of The Library of Congress, and the University Museum Gallery, Hampton University, Washington, DC. Provenance: Gift of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner. Illustrated: Cedric Dover, American Negro Art, p. 20; View Points-the Library of Congress Selection of Pictorial Treasures, p. 205; Jewish Currents, February 1981, cover; American Prints in the Library of Congress, a Catalogue of the Collection, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1991, p. 523. Gedeon Ea9.

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Charles Wilbert White, (American, 1918-1979), Woman Resting, 1938

Lot 53: Charles Wilbert White, (American, 1918-1979), Woman Resting, 1938

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Description: Charles Wilbert White (American, 1918-1979) Woman Resting, 1938 oil on board signed Charles White (upper left) 20 1/2 x 15 inches.

Condition Report: Some surface dirt. Under UV: no restoration. Framed dimensions: 21 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Bessie (Smith).

Lot 54: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Bessie (Smith).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Bessie (Smith). Linoleum cut printed in green and black on cream imitation Japan paper, 1950. 305x228 mm; wide (full ?)margins. Gedeon cites only 1 estate signed-impression, aside from the total edition of approximately 16, printed in various colors. With the estate signature stamp, lower right. Titled, dated 1954, inscribed "State II," "All four states in edition of 16" and numbered 5/5 in pencil, lower margin. Small puncture at the number, lower margin. A superb impression of this very scarce print. We have not found another impression at auction in 20 years. The print is based on the artist''s same-titled tempera painting of the popular blues singer from the same year. Andrea D. Barnwell, Charles White, p 48. Gedeon Eb6.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Move On Up a Little Higher.

Lot 55: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Move On Up a Little Higher.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Move On Up a Little Higher. Charcoal and Wolff crayon on illustration board, 1961. 1004x1205 mm; 39 1/2x47 1/2 inches. Signed and dated in charcoal, lower right. Provenance: the artist, New York; ACA Gallery, New York (1961); acquired by the current owner, London, UK. Illustrated: Portfolio 10 (published by the artist), Los Angeles, 1961; Harlem USA, New York, 1964; Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, Los Angeles, 1967, p. 79; True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, New York, 2007. While the drawing has remained in the current owner's private collection, it is well-known, having been illustrated in a number of books on the artist and African-American culture. Move On Up a Little Higher is a most impressive example of the artist's mid-career work, a masterful large-scale drawing that conveys all the emotional and figurative realism one associates with White. It is exhibited now for the first time in the U.S. since it was purchased by the owner from ACA Gallery. The title refers to the gospel song of Mahalia Jackson whose 1948 recording made her famous.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Micah.

Lot 57: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Micah.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Micah. Linoleum cut, 1964. 1222x607 mm; 48 1/2x23 7/8 inches, full margins. Proof, from an edition of approximately 35. Signed, titled and inscribed "Ed. 35" in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this monumental and scarce print. Provenance: Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, with the gallery label on the frame back; collection of Evelyn N. Boulware, New York. Illustrated: Andrea D. Barnwell, Charles White. The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume I, plate 35, p. 82. Another impression is also illustrated in Benjamin Horowitz, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, p. 94. While the stated edition is 35, there are only several impressions known today. As with other large blocks from the 1960s, the artist often printed impressions on an individual basis. We have not found another impression at auction in the past 20 years. Micah is the last of a series of monumental linoleum cuts of figures with spiritual or Biblical titles that Charles White made in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Andrea Barnwell has linked Charles White's dramatic depiction of this Old Testament prophet to the inspiration African-American ministers found during the Civil Rights struggle--particularly Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who often quoted verses from the book of Micah. Barnwell p. 80. Gedeon EB18.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Portrait of a Man.

Lot 58: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Portrait of a Man.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Portrait of a Man. Graphite and pencil on paper, 1965. 229x318 mm; 9x12 1/2 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the artist; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles; the collection of Mr. and Mrs. O. Willard Murray, Van Nuys, CA; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York; private collection, with the labels on the frame back. Exhibited: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, January 18 - March 10, 2001; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, April 20 - July 1, 2001; Collector's Show and Sale, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, December 1, 2000 - Junuary 1, 2001, with the label on the frame back. Illustrated: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, p. 60.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter III.

Lot 60: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter III.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter III. Color lithograph on Arches, 1977. 762x566 mm; 30x22 1/4 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, one of two aside from the numbered edition of 30. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "A/P" in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by Ed Hamilton, Los Angeles, CA, with the blind stamp lower right. A superb impression with strong colors. Gedeon Ea33.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II.

Lot 61: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Sound of Silence II. Color lithograph, 1978. 636x877 mm, 25x35 1/4 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 13/71 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by David Panosh. Published by Hand Graphics, Ltd., Santa Fe, NM, with the blind stamp lower right. A good impression with strong colors. Gedeon Ea35.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Work.

Lot 61: CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Work.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 -1979) Work. Wolff crayon and charcoal on illustration board, 1953. 1118x711 mm; 44x28 inches. Signed and dated in crayon, lower left. Provenance: Cye Reiss, Beverly Hills, CA; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label on the frame back; Russell D. Martin, M.D., Claremont, CA; thence by descent to the current owners. Illustrated: Benjamin Horowitz, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, p. 55; Sidney Finkelstein, Charles White: Ein Künstler Amerikas, pl. 33; Louie Robinson, "Charles White: Portrayer of Black Dignity," Ebony Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 9, July, 1967, p. 26; Negro Digest, June, 1967, cover. Charles White created Work at the height of his New York career. This exceptional drawing is an excellent example of how, in the early 1950s, White gave a new beauty and dignity to his Social Realist subjects. Previously, White had used a more angular and stylized figuration that reflected his experience in the WPA and the influence of Mexican muralists. By the 1950s, White depicted working men and women on a grand scale, with an intensity of mark making and an attention to natural gestures that made his subjects into heroic figures. Work is the first large scale drawing from White's important 1950s period to come to auction. In 1953, ACA Gallery in New York gave Charles White a solo exhibition of 15 paintings and drawings that cemented his growing international career and reputation. The year before, the Whitney Museum of American Art acquired the pen and ink drawing The Preacher. In particular, drawings from 1953 are often used as examples to represent his ouevre--including the Art Institute of Chicago's Harvest Talk and Ye Shall Inherit the Earth, the cover of Andrea D. Barnwell's monograph, Charles White. Gedeon D79.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love is a Naked Shadow.

Lot 62: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love is a Naked Shadow.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love is a Naked Shadow. Charcoal and crayon on illustration board, circa 1966. 1310x775 mm; 51 1/2x30 1/2 inches. With the artist's estate signature stamp, lower right. Provenance: the artist's estate; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, with the gallery label on the frame back; collection of Evelyn N. Boulware, New York. Illustrated: Benjamin Horowitz, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, 1967, frontispiece. The artist is depicted posing in front of this drawing on his studio easel. The title is a line taken from the 1927 Langston Hughes poem Song for a Dark Girl: Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree. This evocative title and the reflective pose of this graceful figure reflect the pain and poignancy of the times. 1965-66 was a pivotal time for Charles White--that year, he began teaching at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and was commissioned by Golden State Mutual Life to draw General Moses (Harriet Tubman). Meanwhile, race riots broke out in many cities, including Los Angeles, and the National Guard occupied the Watts section of the city. Widespread acts of violence upon African-American communities such as the lynching made notorious in Hughes's poem and Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit continued in the struggles of the mid-1960s. White was also reaching new career heights during this California artistic period--with important solo exhibitions at ACA Gallery, New York and Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, as well as winning awards at international exhibitions in France and Germany.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Trumpet Player.

Lot 62: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Trumpet Player.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Trumpet Player. Charcoal and gouache on illustration board, 1959-60. 935x673 mm; 38x26 1/2 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right. Provenance: Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles; Mr. and Mrs. Max E. Youngstein, Los Angeles; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York; John Axelrod, Boston (1994); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011), with the gallery labels on the frame back. Exhibited: African-American Art 20th Century Masterworks, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, November 18, 1993 - February 12, 1994; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1994, with the label on the frame back. Illustrated: African-American Art 20th Century Masterworks, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, p. 8; Andrea Barnwell, Charles White, The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume I, p. 71. Charles White captures a jazz musician in a quiet moment of pause in this large drawing, which originally was part of a triptych depicting three musicians entitled Trio. Each are drawn in charcoal and silhouetted with a surrounding ground of white gouache--an experimental treatment by the artist at the time. Trio also included drawings of a Guitarist and Clarinetist, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The group of drawings was acquired by the film producer Max E. Youngstein, one of the owners of the film studios United Artists in the 1950s. Trios were popular in jazz at the time, but were typically led by a pianist with a drummer and bassist. White and Youngstein were both active in support of the Civil Rights movement. Both their names are found on the famous 1960 "Heed Their Voices" petition that solicited funds to defend Martin Luther King, Jr. against an Alabama perjury indictment and was published in The New York Times as a full page advertisement. Gedeon D131.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Solid as a Rock (My God is Rock).

Lot 68: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Solid as a Rock (My God is Rock).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Solid as a Rock (My God is Rock). Linoleum cut on thin Japan paper, 1958. 1134x305 mm; 38x14 7/8 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. An excellent impression of this large, scarce print. We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 20 years. According to Gedeon, the artist printed impressions between 1956 and 1958 on an individual basis. Other impressions are found in the collections of Atlanta University and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Gedeon Eb11.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Children's Hour.

Lot 69: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Children's Hour.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Children's Hour. Wolff crayon on illustration board, 1960. 1015x660 mm; 40x26 inches. Initialed "C.W.," lower left. Provenance: the artist, Los Angeles; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles; George Anton and David A. Brown, Brown Pharmaceutical Company, Inc., Los Angeles; thence by descent to the current owners, private collection, Los Angeles. Illustrated: Benjamin Horowitz, Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, 1967, pg. 73. At the end of the 1950s, in somewhat of a departure from his earlier social realism, Charles White explored the emotional themes of childhood with his exquisite draftmanship. In the artist's new home in Los Angeles, White was commissioned by the Brown Pharmaceutical Company to create a series entitled "Study for Children's Games" in 1960. Three such images of children playing--Children's Hour, Skipping, now in the collection of George and Joyce Wein, and Game--are illustrated in Images of Dignity. The Brown Pharmaceutical Company also published a portfolio of reproductive prints of his drawings. In 1960, White drew similar images of children playing for a television show for his close friend and collector Harry Belafonte.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Juba.

Lot 71: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Juba.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Juba. Lithograph on cream Arches paper, 1965. 425x630 mm; 16 5/8x24 3/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "ED/40" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Joe Funk, Los Angeles. A very good impression. Gedeon Ea18.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Unfinished Painting No. 6).

Lot 72: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Unfinished Painting No. 6).

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Unfinished Painting No. 6). Oil on canvas, circa 1965-66. 1270x609 mm; 50x24 inches. With the estate ink signature stamp, lower left. Provenance: the estate of the artist; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label on the stretcher bar, lower left verso; private collection; thence by descent to the current owner. This large painting of a pensive young woman in green is only the second oil painting by Charles White to come to auction. His painting is known largely from his early mural paintings from the 1940s. White had painted a number of oils in addition to works in tempera in the early 1950s, including several for his 1951 Black Woman Exhibition at ACA Gallery. White moved away from painting in oil in the mid-1950s due to his focus on drawing and health concerns from the 1956 reappearance of his tuberculosis. This work marks an early return to painting around 1965 when he began teaching at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. By the late 1960s in Los Angeles, White was fully invested in painting oil on both canvas and board, including his celebrated Wanted Poster Series from 1969-1971, and other related works like Homage to Langston Hughes, 1971 and Mother Courage II, 1974. Gedeon B59.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1978) William Warfield.

Lot 74: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1978) William Warfield.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1978) William Warfield. Charcoal and pencil on wove paper, circa 1954. 495x470 mm; 19 1/2x18 1/2 inches. With the artist''s estate ink stamp, lower right. Provenance: Ex-collection the artist; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label on the frame back; private New York collection. William Caesar Warfield, the concert baritone, gained worldwide fame for his role in Porgy and Bess during a tour of Europe sponsored by the U.S. State Department. In this production he played opposite the opera star Leontyne Price, whom he soon married; they divorced in 1972. Charles White demonstrates his skill in foreshortening with this portrait study. He used charcoal and an oval silhouette also in works such as General Moses and Sojourner in 1954. In the mid-1950s, Charles White enjoyed many successes including solo exhibitions at ACA Gallery, the Pyramid Club and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. For health reasons, he moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1958. Charles White did many portraits of actors and singers in the 50s and 60s, including Bessie Smith, Harry Belafonte, Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mayor Tom Bradley.

Lot 79: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mayor Tom Bradley.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Mayor Tom Bradley. Lithograph, 1974. 761x565 mm; 30x23 3/8 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, one of 25 artist's proofs, aside from the edition of 200. Signed, titled, dated, inscribed A/P and numbered 23 in pencil, lower margin. Signed and dedicated in ink by Bradley, lower left, "Jules Glazer Thank you for the great job you did to make the dinner a great success and a Great Day in December. I will always remember." Printed by Lloyd Baggs, Los Angeles. Published by Cirrus Editions, Los Angeles. A very good impression. This is only the second impression of this lithograph to come to auction. The first was sold at Swann Galleries on September 15, 2005. Cirrus 180c-74CW, Gedeon Ea 28.

Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries'' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Male Figure in Profile.

Lot 80: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Male Figure in Profile.

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Description: CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Male Figure in Profile. Pen and ink on cream wove paper, circa 1937-38. 250x194 mm; 10 1/4x7 3/4 inches. With the artist's estate signature ink stamp, lower right. Provenance: ex-collection the artist; Ben Horowitz, Los Angeles; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles. This figure sketch comes from one of the artist's early sketchbooks from his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries'' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

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