Auckland City Art Gallery By the Waters of Babylon - The Art of A. Lois White exhibition label affixed verso

PROVENANCE
Alison Disbrowe (Artist's niece) Collection until 1996 Traditional & Contemporary Art Auction International Art Centre, 23/04/1996 Private Collection, Auckland

EXHIBITED
By the Waters of Babylon - The Art of A. Lois White - national touring exhibition organised by Auckland City Art Gallery, 1995

Auckland born Anna Lois White was the daughter of Annie Phillipps and her architect husband, Arthur Herbert White. Both families had helped establish Methodism in New Zealand, and her mother was a leading member of the Mount Albert Methodist Church in Auckland. Throughout her life, Lois struggled to reconcile two sides of her personality: the God-fearing dutiful daughter and the free-spirited creative artist.

Lois White attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School from 1919 until 1922 and is remembered as a gifted pupil, both artistically and academically. Her father died when she was a teenager, and in spite of limited family finances, Mrs White encouraged her daughter to attend the Elam School of Fine Art. In 1924, under the La Trobe Scheme, Archibald Fisher took over the directorship of Elam.

A graduate from the Royal College of Art, London and in still in his late twenties, Fisher brought with him an innovative and enthusiastic approach to life drawing and introduced a curriculum focused on figure composition and narrative, particularly contemporary social comment. For Lois White and other young artists, he 'opened up a new world'. Recognising Lois White's ability Fisher later employed her as a part-time Elam tutor from 1928 to 1934. She taught figure composition there, and at Takapuna Grammar School. In 1935 White was made a full-time tutor at Elam and for nearly 30 years she was a dedicated teacher, promoting an approach to art based on sound drawing techniques. Among her students was Michael Smither.

During the 1970s the sculptor, Terry Stringer taught with White at the Auckland Society of Arts, the two became friends with Stringer acquiring a number of pieces from her studio in Blockhouse Bay. Stringer paid tribute to his fellow artist with the creation in 1978 of her bronze portrait. Stringer drew the attention of Wellington dealer Peter McLeavy to the works of Lois White. In 1977 McLeavey organised White's first solo exhibition attracting the attention of galleries and collectors. She was 74 years old.

Lois White died in Auckland in 1984. Interest in her work was revived posthumously when Auckland Art Gallery held a major 1993 retrospective, By the Waters of Babylon. Spring, featured in this exhibition, supported by other works from a series of female allegories modelled on the artist's friends and students in symbolic guise. Today, the elegant vitality and mysticism of these work has found a deeper resonance and appreciation.

Works by Lois White are held in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Reference: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1998, Nicola Green, New Zealand Women Artists, Anne Kirker, 1986