Elijah, 1969 by Charles White (1918-1979)
Elijah, 1969 by Charles White (1918-1979)
Etching in brown ink on off-white modern wove paper
White's captivating print beckons you to explore a moment frozen in time. A young boy, his identity save for his first name unknown, peeks over a wall; only his head and fingertips
are visible. His gaze is the centerpiece, brimming with raw emotion. Yet Elijah's identity remains a mystery—no detail within this sparse composition offers conclusive, or even
speculative, evidence to the who, what, or why of the scene portrayed. White, an extraordinary interpreter of the Black experience, instead offers a profound emphasis on the humanity of his subject.
This is the first of White's etchings printed by master printers Joseph and Hugo Mugnaini, with whom he would collaborate for four years.
In the works they produced together, as exemplified in this print, White explicitly explored lines—the ways they brilliantly convey texture and demarcate, if not elucidate, space.
Harvard Fine Arts Museum, Cambridge, MA, USA
Elijah, 1969 by Charles White (1918-1979)
Elijah, 1969 by Charles White (1918-1979)
Etching in brown ink on off-white modern wove paper
White's captivating print beckons you to explore a moment frozen in time. A young boy, his identity save for his first name unknown, peeks over a wall; only his head and fingertips
are visible. His gaze is the centerpiece, brimming with raw emotion. Yet Elijah's identity remains a mystery—no detail within this sparse composition offers conclusive, or even
speculative, evidence to the who, what, or why of the scene portrayed. White, an extraordinary interpreter of the Black experience, instead offers a profound emphasis on the humanity of his subject.
This is the first of White's etchings printed by master printers Joseph and Hugo Mugnaini, with whom he would collaborate for four years.
In the works they produced together, as exemplified in this print, White explicitly explored lines—the ways they brilliantly convey texture and demarcate, if not elucidate, space.
Harvard Fine Arts Museum, Cambridge, MA, USA