Hale A. Woodruff

Hale A. Woodruff was born in Cairo, Illinois, on August 26, 1900, but he was, at heart, a product of the American South. He grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where he attended local schools. Woodruff returned to the North and studied at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Harvard Fogg Art Museum. Woodruff won a Harmon Foundation award in 1926, which enabled him to spend four years studying in Paris from 1927 to 1931. In 1931, John Hope (1868–1936), president of Atlanta University (an institution established in 1865 by the American Missionary Association of New York [AMA]), was working to expand the university's programs. Hope persuaded Woodruff to return to the US with the offer of establishing an art department at the university. Woodruff returned amid the pressures of the Great Depression and began building Atlanta University’s art department. In 1936, Woodruff traveled to Mexico to study as an apprentice under the renowned muralist Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957). There, he learned Rivera’s fresco technique and developed an interest in portraying figures. He returned to Atlanta and continued teaching and making art.

From the 1960s until his death, Hale Woodruff continued to create and collaborate with other artists. In particular, his work included the Celestial Gate series, which he had begun in the early 1950s and continued to add to through the late 1970s. This series showcased his deft ability to work abstractly and to incorporate traditional African iconography.