1
00:00:02,100 --> 00:00:05,533
GUEST: Charles White became part 
of my household once I came into 
possession of this work through

2
00:00:09,300 --> 00:00:14,300
my sister-in-law Maria. She 
gave these to me about a year 
ago. She thought maybe I should

3
00:00:16,166 --> 00:00:20,266
just frame these and, and share 
them with my family members. 
And I said, "No, I think

4
00:00:21,833 --> 00:00:26,366
we should see, you know, 
get more information 
about Charles White."

5
00:00:26,366 --> 00:00:31,366
APPRAISER: Well, you brought 
in two wonderful sets of prints 
by Charles White. Charles White

6
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:38,366
is really a fantastic American 
artist, an African-American 
artist. And, and these are

7
00:00:40,366 --> 00:00:44,633
very good examples of his work. 
Charles White is a pre-eminent 
modern American artist, and

8
00:00:46,966 --> 00:00:51,900
he was born in 1918 in Chicago. 
He studied at the School of 
the Art Institute of Chicago

9
00:00:51,900 --> 00:00:52,966
as a teenager.

10
00:00:52,966 --> 00:00:55,100
GUEST: Uh-huh.

11
00:00:55,100 --> 00:00:58,933
APPRAISER: And he rose 
to prominence, was a 
part of the WPA program. 
He did mural paintings.

12
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,533
And then he became really known 
as a graphic artist. His work 
is in many museum collections.

13
00:01:07,433 --> 00:01:11,533
And he was celebrated during 
his lifetime, but just recently, 
he's risen to much greater

14
00:01:13,933 --> 00:01:17,233
prominence, well deserved. 
Presently, there's a 
retrospective of his 
work that's traveling.

15
00:01:17,233 --> 00:01:22,233
It was exhibited at the Museum 
of Modern Art in New York and 
in Chicago, at the Art Institute

16
00:01:24,166 --> 00:01:28,233
of Chicago. And it's now in 
Los Angeles. He was a political 
artist, and he wanted to say

17
00:01:30,566 --> 00:01:35,566
more about the African-American 
experience, the struggles 
that they were going through,

18
00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,833
especially in the 1960s, 
when these were done. 
These are reproduction 
prints. They're offset

19
00:01:42,866 --> 00:01:46,400
lithographs of his drawings. 
And they were printed in the 
early 1960s with his gallery,

20
00:01:48,433 --> 00:01:53,133
Heritage Gallery, and A.C.A. 
Gallery in New York. And he 
really wanted to make his work

21
00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:58,933
more available. So these 
portfolios were printed 
to promote his, his 
work. They reproduced

22
00:02:00,966 --> 00:02:05,100
his drawings. And you have 
two sets here. We have a set 
of six and a set of ten. Each

23
00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:11,333
image is a drawing he did from 
the time, from, like, the late 
1950s and early '60s. This

24
00:02:13,300 --> 00:02:16,933
is what his work was all about. 
So we actually don't know how 
many of these are printed in

25
00:02:18,866 --> 00:02:21,733
each edition. The numbers were 
quite large. I imagine hundreds 
were printed. The original

26
00:02:21,733 --> 00:02:26,733
drawings would be very 
large. They were, like, four 
feet high, five feet wide.

27
00:02:27,333 --> 00:02:29,400
GUEST: Oh!

28
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,433
APPRAISER: Artist reproductions 
usually don't rise to the value 
that they would be something

29
00:02:32,433 --> 00:02:37,200
you would see at an auction 
house or a gallery, but these 
were critical to Charles White's

30
00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:42,200
work. He wanted them 
to be represented. He 
wanted more people to 
obtain them. And because

31
00:02:44,166 --> 00:02:47,733
of his significance, because of 
his importance now, these are 
highly collectible. And they

32
00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,200
are also pristine examples and 
the complete sets. And that's 
really the difference. They

33
00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,233
haven't been framed. They're 
almost as if you obtained 
them the day they were issued

34
00:02:59,233 --> 00:03:04,200
in the '60s. At auction 
today, the set of six I would 
estimate at $1,000 to $1,500,

35
00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:09,633
and the set of ten would reach 
$2,000 to $3,000 at auction.

36
00:03:09,633 --> 00:03:10,633
GUEST: Awesome, awesome.

37
00:03:10,633 --> 00:03:11,633
APPRAISER: Yeah.

38
00:03:11,633 --> 00:03:12,733
GUEST: That's good to know.