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(For some reasons the images uploaded as a pdf, apologies).

The Charles White Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art was so much more interesting than I could have imagined. Looking at the audio guides beforehand, I did not believe that his art could be so complex in person. Something about seeing it in person made me want to keep looking at his art.

From what I understand about White, his paintings have to do with the African American experience in America from the slavery era, all the way to Frederick Douglass and beyond. From what I saw, he used a variety of techniques to add shading to a lot of his portraits such as the one about the Trenton Six and the one drawing of a man that is busting out of his shirt. In some of the paintings, the shading is accomplished via hatching and cross-hatching, a technique I only in see in “How-to” draw tutorial books, never in art itself. In another piece, his shading comes from carving out some pieces of the medium and not others (as in IMG 4474). His use of different mediums and techniques also was very interesting as he seemed to do what he did well in every which way, which was very interesting to see.

I extremely enjoyed the Charles White exhibition mainly because his messages were very thinly veiled in his paintings and drawings. As opposed to the other artists we have seen so far this semester, White’s art seemed more accessible and understandable to me, someone who is some ways away from calling herself an art aficionado. I also believe that White did this somewhat personally for two reasons: 1) to have a more profound and targeted impact on his audience, one that has no misconceptions about what White was preaching and 2) to inspire African Americans and show them that they had strength, brains, and power. The depiction of key African American figures in one of his murals likely also contributes to the second reason as in that same mural White also depicts their history and the evolution of their status from slaves and un-free people to artists, orators, scientists, and more.

The lady who spoke about the pieces also helped deepen my understanding of White’s art because she pointed out certain things that I would not have otherwise noticed (like the family being the same in two sides of a painting. I think having her as a guide as well as the readings, I could more clearly see the minutiae of the paintings and draw “intellectual” conclusions about the artist and his art.