Lois White

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Anna Lois White (2 November 1903 – 13 September 1984), known in the art world as Lois (pronounced Loyce) White,^[1] was a New Zealand painter of the modernist school. She taught at the Elam Art School of the University of Auckland from 1927^[2] 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 attended Epsom 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^[3]. 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.