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Francis Robert White (1907-1986) - student

Perhaps the most controversial artist from the Stone City Art Colony, White was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa and pursued his art studies in various locations – the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia)(1924-25), European studies in Rome, Genoa, Venice, and Paris (1925-1929), the New York Art Students League (1932-33), and night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago (1934-1935). He initially studied the craft of stained glass at the Wilkes Barre Campus of Penn State University and then opened a glass design studio in New York City. His work there resulted in a Guggenheim Fellowship and overseas study opportunities in England, France, and Italy from 1930-31.

A student at the Stone City Art Colony in 1932, White initially followed Grant Wood’s leadership and artistic style. Quickly, he had differences with the colony founder and sparked a debate over Wood’s teaching influence and methods. Several of the colony’s students broke with the group to follow White into new projects and to start their own collective.

Once organized, White gathered a small group of artists about him – Howard Johnson, Everett Jeffrey, Harry Donald Jones, Arnold Pyle, and Don Glasell – and these men would complete a single, controversial project -- the WPA mural installation for the Cedar Rapids federal courthouse in 1936. After almost twenty years of complaints about the murals’ graphic images, the court ordered the three panels to be painted over immediately and essentially destroyed.

White won numerous awards at the Iowa State Fair’s Art Salon (including the Sweepstakes prize in 1937) for his paintings and had a one-man show at the Younkers Tea Room Galleries in 1934, a well-respected local art forum. By 1935, he had formed the Cooperative Mural Painters Group, a division of the WPA’s Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and had assumed the directorship of the Little Gallery, Cedar Rapids (1935-1937) after Edward Rowan accepted his national WPA post in Washington, D.C.

Despite the public outrage over the courthouse project, White continued his own campaign for improving conditions for Iowa artists. In the early 1930s, he led an Iowa Cooperative Artists boycott at the Iowa State Fair, demanding rental fees instead of cash prizes. Viewed as “left-wing” by much of the art community, he would eventually become the director of all WPA federal art projects for Iowa (1937-1939), assuming that role from Grant Wood. White led the art program from the Sioux City [IA] Art Center, where he served as director. He would conduct the Clear Lake [IA] Summer School of Art and worked on a Chicago WPA project in 1933. White was briefly stationed in Cody, Wyoming as a recorder and artist for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and served as an art supervisor for the Navajo Indian Agency, Window Rock, Arizona (1940).

White had a private mural commission at the Russian Inn of Philadelphia, PA (1927) and federal WPA mural commissions for the Missouri Valley, Iowa post office (1938) and the Algona, Iowa post office (1941). The Whitney Museum of American Art granted White a commission for a stained glass window in 1929-1930. Following World War II, White relocated to Chicago and opened a private, stained-glass studio (1952) that remained in operation over thirty years. The Creator Window, located at the First Presbyterian Church of Mason City, Iowa, was one of the studio’s commissions – the largest fused glass window of its time (ca. 1971-1973), made from over 200 blocks of glass. White designed and constructed all of the church’s windows over a twelve-year span, including two 25-foot tall windows. Other notable Mason City, Iowa glass projects include the St. Peter and St. Paul windows of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration and the Meredith Willson Chapel Windows at the First Congregational Church.

White was exhibited widely, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the Kansas City Art Institute, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the New York City World’s Fair, and the Whitney Museum, New York City. He was a member of the American Artists Congress and died in Chicago in 1986. A memorial service in his honor was held in Mason City in August 1986.

Online Resources for Francis Robert White:

“ Bethlehem Lutheran Church." (DeKalb, IL) -- altar crucifix
Available: http://helios.augustana.edu/~ew/des/published-art-works/su37.html

“The First Congregational Church, Meredith Wilson Chapel." (Mason City, IA) -- window commission
Available: http://www.uccwebsites.net/firstcongmasoncityia.html

"The Grand Lodge of Iowa, A.F. & A.M." (Cedar Rapids, IA) -- commissioned for all library windows.
Available: http://showcase.netins.net/web/iowamasons/library.html

“The Holy Name of Mary Church." (Chicago,IL) -- window commissions
Available: http://www.holynameofmarychurch.org/

“The MacNider Art Museum." (Mason City, IA) -- featured artist
Available: http://www.macniderart.org/

“The Missouri Valley, Iowa, Post Office Mural.” Available: http://communitydisc.westside66.org/html/colette/muralsSIG/MissouriValley.html

"North Shore Unitarian Church." (Deerfield, IL) -- window commission.
Available: http://216.145.227.9/index.html

Francis Robert White. Self-portrait Christmas card, 1978. Sketch provided by Lea Rosson DeLong.

Francis Robert White, ca. 1930. Photographer unknown. Holger Cahill papers, 1910-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

When Tillage Begins: The Stone City Art Colony and School
Published online October 2003 by the
Busse Library,
Mount Mercy College
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Telephone: 319-368-6465
Fax: 319-363-9060
Email: library@mtmercy.edu

Researcher & Author: Kristy Raine
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