?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200,000 - $ 250,000
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.
