Coastal Moment, 1987, acrylic on board, 30 x 40 1/2, signed lower right: R. White '87, White was stationed in San Antonio during World War II, as a bomber pilot, flight instructor, and test pilot. While at Kelly Air Force Base, now Kelly Field Annex, White met artists that were a part of the newly formed art department at the University of Texas in Austin, like Julius Woeltz (American, 1911-1956). Before the war, White was living in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he had been studying at the Minneapolis School of Art. White’s post-war years included attending Pratt Institute in New York, before returning to Austin in 1946 to teach at the University of Texas. His career as a faculty member at UT Austin spanned over 30 years, during which he settled in a home overlooking Lake Travis, and built an adjoined studio. White was included in the “Who is Who In American Art” for 44 consecutive years. His work is thoroughly modernist, highly stylized, and can be abstracted or nonobjective.