Exceptional Works: Charles White

“The more I learn of the history of my people and country, the more I experience of the stirring events of our time, the more are there subjects which clamor for realization.”

—Charles White, 1955

Charles White

Abraham Lincoln, 1952

Wolff crayon and charcoal on paperboard

27 x 21 1/2 inches (68.6 x 54.6 cm)
Framed: 35 1/4 x 27 inches (89.5 x 68.6 cm)

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Charles White (1918–1979) is known for a prodigious body of work that resolutely depicts Black experiences in America, combating racial and economic injustice with images of strength and resolve. Deeply committed to figuration during a period when abstraction was becoming the dominant artistic paradigm, White's bold, detailed images resonate universally, yet remain grounded by his interest in history and his personal interpretation of truth, beauty, and dignity.

An iconic drawing executed with the exceptional detail so much admired in White’s work, Abraham Lincoln (1952) is one of a very small number of white figures that appear in the artist’s oeuvre. This work is based on photographs of the president captured by the Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner on November 15, 1863, days before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, and was featured in White’s major American retrospective in 2018.

Charles White, 1971. © The Charles White Archives

White saw his work as a powerful vehicle for educating the larger public on Black contributions to the country’s young democracy, as well as on the hardships and systemic injustices that Black people had been forced to endure from the time of slavery onward.

Although he had previously been known as a painter and muralist, by the early 1950s he had moved to working primarily in charcoal, ink, and lithography. Many of the artist’s most enduring works, particularly from his mature period, are large-scale charcoal drawings rendered with painstaking detail and precision.

Installation view, Charles White: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018

In White’s portrayal, the president appears contemplative and robust—looking directly at the viewer.

Around this time, White also executed portraits of historical figures, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, as well as contemporary Black luminaries, such as Mahalia Jackson and Harry Belafonte—communicating through their facial expressions and body language an air of vitality and strength.

Alexander Gardner, Abraham Lincoln, Washington, November, 15, 1863. From the Photographic Portraits of Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln Memorial University; The Meserve Collection, 1941

“White’s drawing telegraphs the sobriety of the moment, a time when the United States was deeply divided over the issue of slavery and rent by internecine warfare. It equally communicates the grit and determination of Lincoln, who engages our gaze directly with an unflinching stare and firm set of jaws. Lincoln, like the white abolitionist John Brown … was one of the artist’s few Caucasian subjects, a reflection of his admiration for both men’s commitment to equity and racial justice.”

—Jill Deupi, curator, 2023

Charles White, Frederick Douglass, 1951. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (left); Charles White, John Brown, 1949. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (right)

Charles White, General Moses (Harriet Tubman),1965. Private Collection

“Done with a combination of charcoal and carbon pencil, [White’s works on paper] have such a wealth of fine detail, a variety of tones and finesse of drawings, that they can be called not drawings, but ‘paintings’ in black and white.”

—Sidney Finkelstein, critic, 1953

Charles White, Abraham Lincoln, 1952 (detail)

In 1953, the New York–based leftist press Masses & Mainstream published the portfolio Charles White: Six Drawings, featuring lithographic reproductions of six recent works, including Abraham Lincoln. In his introduction, the artist Rockwell Kent called the selection “essentially a documentation of human dignity.” For White, such projects were appealing in that—like his murals—they provided an avenue for his work to reach a wider audience. “I was happy,” he wrote, “when I learned that the portfolio of drawings reproduced by Masses & Mainstream had reached many lands, and was helping my people to be understood tens of thousands of miles away.”

Charles White: Six Drawings, published by Masses & Mainstream, 1953

White’s resonant images and singular draughtsmanship have impacted generations of artists. As the painter Alice Neel observed in 1980, “Charles White’s fine drawings and his dedication and loyalty to his people will always be remembered. He gave honor and dignity to the lovers of mankind.”

In 1956, four years after making Abraham Lincoln, White moved with his wife to California, where he became the first full-time Black faculty member at his alma mater, the Otis Art Institute. Among those he mentored there were Kerry James Marshall and David Hammons, who have testified to White’s crucial influence on their work.

Among the most notable works White created following this period is the J’Accuse series—a major body of work executed in 1965–1966 consisting of twelve large-scale charcoal drawings. The title echoes writer Émile Zola’s searing 1898 open letter addressed to the French president, which has become a canonical example of utilizing one’s craft to publicly decry political injustice.

Charles White

J’Accuse #2, 1965-1966

Charcoal on board

30 1/4 x 20 1/2 inches (76.8 x 52.1 cm)
Framed: 40 3/4 x 30 1/4 inches (103.5 x 76.8 cm)

Charles White

J’Accuse #6, 1966

Charcoal on paper

42 x 52 inches (106.7 x 132.1 cm)
Framed: 46 1/2 x 56 1/4 inches (118.1 x 142.9 cm)

“Art must be an integral part of the struggle.… It must ally itself with the forces of liberation.”

—Charles White, 1978

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