Mother Courage II

Informed by the triumphs and struggles of black people, Charles White's work is inherently humanistic and was dedicated to universal themes of equality and freedom. Born on the South Side of Chicago, White won a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937. Two years later he was commissioned by the Federal Arts Project to execute the mural "Five Great American Negroes," for the George Cleveland branch of the Chicago Public Library. This was followed by subsequent mural commissions for the artist.

White was drafted into the Army in 1944, but served only briefly due to health problems. In 1947 a trip to Mexico, he met the great muralists David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, and attended the Esmirads Escuela del Arte, and the Taller de Grafica. The experience had a profound affect on his art. White moved to Los Angeles in 1956, where he taught at the Otis Art Institute for the remaining years of his life.

White worked extensively in lithography and drawing, as well as painting, and his subjects were exclusively African American. Like many of his works, "Mother Courage II" depicts not a specific person but is intended to represent a universal symbol of dignity and strength. The painting has the hallmarks of the artist's late work with a single central figure that dominates the composition before a faceted background. He told an interviewer for the Negro History Bulletin, "I like to think that my work has universality to it. I deal with love, hope, courage, freedom, dignity--the full gamut of human spirit. When I work, though, I think of my own people. That's only natural. However, my philosophy doesn't exclude any nation or race of people."