PROVENANCE:

Private Collection, Waikato

Private Collection, Canterbury

EXHIBITED:

By the Waters of Babylon, The Art of A Lois White. Auckland City Art Gallery 1994-95

Anna Lois White was born in Mount Albert, Auckland on 2 November 1903, the youngest of four children. Her father was an architect and both parents were devout Methodists. While her family and close friends called her 'Anna', she always signed her works 'A. Lois White', and was known in the art world as Lois (pronounced 'Loyce'). An outstanding scholar, singer, swimmer and artist at secondary school, White enrolled at Elam School of Art in 1923. Most of her years there were under the direction of Archie Fisher, who early on recognised her talent and fostered it. After graduating in 1927, White obtained part-time teaching positions at Elam and Takapuna Grammar School, and in 1934 she began working at Elam full-time. She occupied a number of positions at the University until her retirement in 1963. Regarded by many during the 1950s and 60s as little more than a fashionable political commentator of the 1930s who failed to live up to her early promise, White's work was rediscovered in the 1970s, and she is now recognised as one of New Zealand's most distinctive and individual artists of the 20th Century.

Lois White was gradually alienated from her peers, and her themes - religious, political, sexual - were often lost on contemporary audiences. She was marginalised by the art world and took early retirement from her lecturer's position at Elam when criticism from both students and younger staff with new ideas became unbearable. It was not until one or two of her early works appeared in books and retrospective exhibitions in the 1970s that her importance as a New Zealand artist was finally recognised. While the majority of her works are in oil, she also produced a large number of drawings, and, when there was a shortage of materials during the War years, developed a new medium in varnished watercolour.

In October 1977, at the age of 74, White had her first solo exhibition with Wellington art dealer Peter McLeavey. Interest in her work continued until after her death in 1984, culminating in the Auckland City Art Gallery's major retrospective exhibition By the Waters of Babylon. Weeping Women was included in the retrospective and bears the original Auckland City Art Gallery label verso