Introduction
This is the first in a number of forthcoming posts on the work of Charles White that I found at a website (permission granted) maintained by Professor Edward (‘Eddie’) Chambers, Art History and African Diaspora Art, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin. These works of art “reflect[ ] the artist’s prolific work as an illustrator of book jackets, record sleeves, and other published/printed material.” Professor Chambers quotes the poet Nikki Giovanni on this score: “Charles White and his art were introduced to me through magazines and books—that’s why I love them.” Later I will post items found in exhibitions and catalogues and more directly related to my ongoing reading and research on White’s life and art (this is the second in the larger series on same, hence the parenthetical ‘2’ in the title). Quoted material is from Professor Chambers and any bracketed remarks that appear on occasion are from yours truly.
“NEGRO: U.S.A: A Graphic History of the Negro People in America, was a set of prints issued by The Workshop of Graphic Art, 106 East 14th Street, New York City, around the end of the 1940s - beginning of the 1950s. The folio was issued as Workshop Prints No. 2, The Graphic Workshop and included work by:
- Leonard Baskin
- Roy DeCarava
- Antonio Frasconi
- Robert Gwathmey
- Bud Handelsman
- Charles Keller
- Louise Krueger
- Jacob Landau
- Al Lass
- Jacob Lawrence
- Jerry Martin
- Leona Pierce
- Jim Schlecker
- Edward Walsh
- Charles White
This folio may well be incomplete and certainly lacks the jacket and the Foreword by Dr. Herbert Aptheker. The jacket features this print, Negro: U.S.A., which lends its name to the folio itself. This print, signed CHARLES WHITE ‘48 was one of two in this incomplete folio.”
“Masses & Mainstream, was a New York-based journal, published from 1948 to 1963, and was an American Marxist monthly publication. It resulted from a merger between New Masses, which ceased publication in January 1948, and Mainstream, a Communist cultural quarterly established the previous year. Charles White contributed illustrations to a number of the covers of Masses & Mainstream and the journal published a set of White’s prints in 1953.
The cover of Masses & Mainstream’s February 1951 (Volume 4, Number 2) dedicated to Negro History Week 1951, featured a print by White. There were two further prints by White in the issue, though none of them were accompanied by credits. The contents page stated ‘Drawings by Charles White’….”
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