Charles White (1918-79) created both epic and everyday portraits of people of color in media that ranged from paintings and murals to drawings and lithographs. Among his best-known works is “The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy” – a mural at Hampton University, a traditionally Black university in Hampton, Virginia.
National exhibits of his work have been rare, with the Art Institute of Chicago and The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan teaming for a major retrospective in 2018, the centenary of his birth. Local exhibits are even fewer. So that’s why the Rockland Center for the Arts in West Nyack – in partnership with The Gordon Center for Black Culture and Arts in Spring Valley and The CEJJES Institute Inc. in Pomona – is especially pleased to present “Charles White: Influences,” at RoCA through June 11.
“This is a huge deal to have this in the Hudson Valley,” says Barbara Galazzo, exhibitions and events director at RoCA and co-curator of the exhibit with Newton Paul.
RoCA was founded in 1947 by a group of artists across various disciplines, including Helen Hayes, Kurt Weill, Burgess Meredith, Aaron Copeland, Henry Varnum Poor, Maurice Heaton, Maxwell Anderson, Paulette Goddard and Lotte Lenya. The free exhibit is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Masks are required.
The center is at 27 S. Greenbush Road. For more, visit rocklandartcenter.org or call 845-358-0877.
