Description:Portrait of an African-American woman who is slightly bending down with her hands placed on her thighs. She is wearing a hooded dress.
History:The Birth of Spring was created in 1961, during the early years of the American Civil Rights movement. The figure represents no specific individual; instead the drawing reflects the artist's interest in images that appeal to the viewer's spiritual and social consciousness. The woman's somber face and weathered hands testify to a life of physical and emotional pain, yet she rises out of the darkness into the open space above.
Notes:The African-American painter, lithographer, and teacher Charles Wilbert White was born in Chicago. He attended The Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York City. White taught at the George Washington Carver School in New York from 1943 to 1945 and was artist-in-residence at Howard University in Washington, DC in 1945. White spent most of his career in Chicago and Los Angeles. He died in 1979. White's work is included in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles county Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Newark Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
