- Lois White
Anna Lois White (
2 November 1903 –13 September 1984 ), known in the art world as Lois (pronounced Loyce) White, [http://www.artdeco.org.nz/page43.htm] was aNew Zealand painter of the modernist school. She taught at the Elam Art School of theUniversity of Auckland from 1927 [Thwaites, Ian & Fletcher, Rie "We Learnt to See: Elam's Rutland Group 1935-1958", Puriri Press, 2004. ISBN 0-908-943-27-X] until 1963.Lois was the youngest of four children of
Auckland architect Arthur Herbert White and Annie White (Phillips). Her maternal grandfather ran W. Phillips & Sons, an importer of prints and artists' materials. She attendedEpsom Girls' Grammar School from 1919-1922, excelling at all subjects, moving on to study at Elam in 1923.In 1927 she became a part-time tutor at Elam, teaching the junior drawing classes, while at the same time taking a part-time position teaching art at
Takapuna Grammar School . From 1934 she was full-time at Elam until her retirement in January 1963.Her career as a painter continued in concurrently with her teaching career, being accepted as a full "Working Member" of the
Auckland Society of Arts in 1931 and exhibiting regularly with the Society.Lois was one of the founders of the New Group in 1948, a somewhat conservative group of artists concentrating on traditional form and draughtsmanship, somewhat in opposition to younger artists of the time who were pursuing modernist and abstract forms [Green, Nicola. [http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/DNZB/alt_EssayBody.asp?essayID=4W13 "White, Anna Lois 1903 - 1984"] in the
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography ] . She continued to be viewed as a somewhat conservative artist, even in her own opinion, until her work was reappraised through solo exhibitions in 1977 and (after her death) 1994.Further reading
* [http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/white.htm Leonard Bell ,"A Conversation with Lois White ", in Art New Zealand magazine (No.18: Summer 1981)]
* Green, Nicola "By the Waters of Babylon: The Art of A. Lois White".References
External links
* [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colProProductionMakers:White,+A.+Lois Artworks by Lois White in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
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