William "Willie" White
Untitled 4 - Bird and Man in Nature
circa 1990

About the Item

Self taught outsider art by African American artist from New Orleans with work in major museum and private collections. White created a bold colorful world of animals, vegetables and other fantastic creations that captured his attention. Bold areas of primary color create a world all his own. Willie White was a nationally recognized self-taught artist who used felt-tip markers to render whimsical organic forms in flat, bold planes of color. Based in New Orleans, White depicted images from his rural Mississippi upbringing, television, and dreams in simplified palettes of green, blue, red, and black. White was born to a farming couple in Natchez, Mississippi. He attended school through third grade and, in 1929, left Natchez to work on “quarter boats” on the Mississippi River, repairing and securing the river levee. White moved to New Orleans and worked as a waiter for approximately twenty years. He later was employed as a janitor and as a sign painter during the 1950s and 1960s. He acquired an interest in painting after observing artists in the French Quarter in the early 1950s. Using house paint, he initially imitated their work but quickly developed his own ideas and techniques. In the early 1960s, he began to work almost exclusively with felt markers and white poster board and used canvas only when it was provided. His early subjects were neighborhood churches and crosses. White later gleaned images from television and his dreams, creating a diverse visual vocabulary. For example, he depicted modern innovations such as skyscrapers and rocket ships as well as organic forms such as fruits, vegetables, and celestial bodies. His whimsical, dynamic, simplified imagery is flat, bold, and textured with large patches of primary color applied to glossy poster board, and created texture and linear pattern with felt-tip marker strokes. His images are beautifully arranged and balanced, filling the entire field with color. White’s felt-tip drawings are in the collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, and Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago, Illinois.

Creator:

William "Willie" White (1910 - 2000)

Creation Year:

circa 1990

Dimensions:

Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 28 in (71.12 cm)

Medium:

Foam Board,Felt Pen

Movement & Style:

Outsider Art

Period:

1990-1999