CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Untitled (Unfinished Painting No. 6).
Oil on canvas, circa 1965-66. 1270x609 mm; 50x24 inches. With the estate ink signature stamp, lower left.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label on the stretcher bar, lower left verso; private collection; thence by descent to the current owner.
This large painting of a pensive young woman in green is only the second oil painting by Charles White to come to auction. His painting is known largely from his early mural paintings from the 1940s. White had painted a number of oils in addition to works in tempera in the early 1950s, including several for his 1951 Black Woman Exhibition at ACA Gallery. White moved away from painting in oil in the mid-1950s due to his focus on drawing and health concerns from the 1956 reappearance of his tuberculosis. This work marks an early return to painting around 1965 when he began teaching at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. By the late 1960s in Los Angeles, White was fully invested in painting oil on both canvas and board, including his celebrated Wanted Poster Series from 1969-1971, and other related works like Homage to Langston Hughes, 1971 and Mother Courage II, 1974. Gedeon B59.
