Richard "Von" White is an abstract expressionist artist. Born Richard Elis Blair White, on the island of Jamaica in 1951, to a family of prominent businessmen and founders of the town Oracabessa. "Von" is the stage name of Richard White, an artist who specialises in pastel tropical scenes inspired by nature and the female form.
Richard "Von" White studied at the Jamaica College of Art, then went on to study at Goldsmiths College of Art in London, under the tutelage of Professor Harry Thubron. Graduating with honours from Goldsmiths, Von went on to develop his own style of abstraction, with a keystone on the masters that have gone before – particularly Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Von's philosophy on art finds its roots in Taoism. He expanded on many of his early ideas on art in an academic thesis based on creativity and its relationship with Taoism of Lao Tsu. Von's themes are an approach to abstract expressionism as embodied by the Tao. Von is of the Christian faith.
Von's paintings have been said to have a prevailing message of tranquility.
Von's art also finds great inspiration from the rock and roll era of the 1960s and 1970s.
Biography
Richard "Von" White was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 24 August 1951 at Nuttall Hospital just after Jamaica had been devastated by Hurricane Charlie (1951). All telecommunications were downed due to the hurricane, so his birth (among others) was announced on the national radio to get messages of births and deaths to respective families islandwide. He began painting and drawing from an early age of 3 years old. Von Grew up in Oracabessa, and attended Oracbessa Primary as a youth, and then at eight years old went to dèCarteret College in Mandeville where he completed his secondary education with a primary focus on the visual arts, finishing with A level Art and A level English Literature. Following this Von attended the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (formally Jamaica School of Art) in 1970, where he was tutored by professor Harry Thubron who was contracted to work with Jamaica School of Art at that time. Following this Von travelled to London to do a foundation course with Hammersmith College of Art/Chelsea School of Art, Kings Road London. He then applied to Goldsmiths College London where he was accepted to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and again under Professor Harry Thubron tutelage he graduated First Division honours in 1977. Upon return to Jamaica in 1978, Von has had several exhibitions throughout the decades. These are listed below. This artist has devoted a lifetime to the development of his style of art and produced many works of art. His work is owned by people worldwide, with original paintings in locations from Australia to the far east, and from Europe to North America.
Von's Art - From a philosophical background
The Tao
Von is an artist who is a Jamaican that studied art in London England and found inspiration from the Sage Lao Tsu from ancient China. "The utility of the empty bowl is the space within". Lao Tsu, an older contemporary of Confucius, was keeper of the imperial archives at Loyang in the province of Honan in the 6th century B.C. All his life Lao Tsu taught that "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"; but, according to ancient legend, as he was riding off into the desert to die - sick at heart at the ways of men - he was persuaded by a gatekeeper in northwestern China to write down his teaching for posterity. This book is called the Tao Te Ching.
The essence of Taoism is contained in the eighty-one chapters of the book- roughly 5,000 words- which have for 2,500 years provided one of the major underlying influences in Chinese thought and culture, emerging also in proverbs and folklore. Whereas Confucianism is concerned with day-to-day rules of conduct, Taoism is concerned with a more spiritual level of being.
Poem ONE
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within Darkness. The gate to all mystery.