Truth and Beauty: Charles White and His Circle was a very attractive catalogue, accompanying an exhibition of the same name at New York City’s Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. The exhibition was scheduled to coincide with the Museum of Modern Art’s showing of the major Charles White Retrospective that was first see at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Alongside a number of early and rarely seen work by White, Truth and Beauty: Charles White and His Circle featured work by the following artists:

Benny Andrews (1930-2006)
Richmond Barthé (1901-1989)
Romare Bearden (1911-1988)
John Biggers (1924-2000)
Eldzier Cortor (1916-2015)
Ernest Crichlow (1914-2005)
Philip Evergood (1901-1973)
William Gropper (1897-1977)
Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988)
David Hammons (b.1943)
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)
Norman Lewis (1909-1979)
Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955)
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (1891-1981)
John Outterbridge (b. 1933)
Gordon Parks (1912-2006)
Marion Perkins (1908-1961)
Betye Saar (b.1926)
Charles Sebree (1914-1985)
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Raphael Soyer (1894-1986)
Harry Sternberg (1904-2001)
Hale Woodruff (1900-1980)

Extensively illustrated, and with its high production values, Truth and Beauty: Charles White and His Circle was a beautiful catalogue.

Contents as follows:

FOREWORD, halley k harrisburg (sic) and Michael Rosenfeld, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery

PATH OF A NEGRO ARTIST, BY CHARLES WHITE, Excerpted from Masses & Mainstream, April 1955

THE WORK OF CHARLES WHITE (nearly 20 plates, one per page)

ABOUT CHARLES WHITE (1918 – 1979), uncredited biographical essay.

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Followed by a section, ‘& HIS CIRCLE’, reflections and appreciations by several of the 25 artists listed above.

FREEDOMWAYS, CHARLES WHITE, Art and Soul, 1980 – a brief introduction to the Freedomways issue. This section of Truth and Beauty: Charles White and His Circle reproduced several texts from the special commemorative issue of Freedomways. The tributes to White were as follows:

“CHARLES WHITE WAS A DRAWER”, Benny Andrews

“HIS INFLUENCE CAUSED ME TO TURN OUT LITTLE CHARLES WHITES”, John Biggers

“HE WAS AT HOME CREATIVELY IN ANY LOCALE, Eldzier Cortor

“TO OUR COLLEAGUE”, Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Hale Woodruff

THE WORK OF HIS CIRCLE – plates of work by each of the 25 artists listed above

Section titled Truth and Beauty: Charles White and His Circle

CHARLES WHITE – CHECKLIST OF THE EXHIBITION

AND HIS CIRCLE – CHECKLIST OF THE EXHIBITION

MICHAEL ROSENFELD GALLERY – EXHIBITION HISTORY (December 1989 – November 9 2019, 5 pages of exhibitions

CREDITS

With its cover bearing an individually adhered plate of I BEEN REBUKED AND I BEEN SCORNED (SOLID AS A ROCK), 1954, this publication was a most handsome and useful document on Charles White.