Rendered in swirling shades of black and white, Charles Alston’s Black and White #7, 1961, showcases Alston’s signature mode of gestural abstraction. Inspired by the social justice murals of José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera, and having gotten his start as one of the only African American supervisors of a WPA project at Harlem Hospital in the 1930s, Alston was deeply rooted in the Civil Rights Movement, exploring themes of inequality and race relations in a variety of ways throughout his works. One of a series of eight paintings created between 1959 and 1961, the present work has been exhibited in numerous major exhibitions, the first of which was the historic, first and only documented show put on by the Spiral group in May 1964. One of the first Black artists to have work exhibited in The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Alston has works today in the prominent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and the Detroit Institute of Art.
“I don’t think the standards are black, white, green or whatnot. The thing that makes an African mask great is the thing that makes a great painting by Rembrandt great, really essentially, you know?”
—Charles Alston
Born in Charlotte and educated at Columbia University, Alston formed Spiral with artists such as Hale Woodruff, Norman Lewis, and his cousin Romare Bearden. Their aim was simple: to form a collective for African American artists to discuss the Civil Rights Movement and how they fit in as artists to the shifting political and cultural landscape of mid-century America. Described by Bearden, Alston was “one of the most versatile artists whose enormous skill led him to a diversity of styles… and a voice in the development of African American art who never doubted the excellence of all people's sensitivity and creative ability. During his long professional career, Alston significantly enriched the cultural life of Harlem. In a profound sense, he was a man who built bridges between Black artists in varying fields, and between other Americans.”For the collective’s single documented show at the Christopher Street Gallery in New York in 1964, in which the present work was included, there was just one guiding principle: submitted works were restricted to a palette of black and white.
Using a muted, color-blind palette with limited tones of blacks, whites and grays, Black and White #7, like many of Alston’s works, is racially charged, intended to provide a social commentary on the tumultuous moment in which he lived. Hinting at the tension of 1960s America, the black and white tones of the present work struggle around one another, twisting to get out of the other’s reach. Blurring the ends of each hue, each color melts into one another, lacking a distinction between beginning and end. As such, Black and White #7 transposes the inner turmoil felt by Alston and other African Americans during this period onto the canvas, creating a painting which is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.