#DEBlackHistory – Black Art & Culture

Image provided by Giphy

Day 10 of #DEBlackHistory is about art and culture. For today’s theme we are highlighting painter and muralist Hale Woodruff.

Image provided by Diverse Art for Kids

Hale Woodruff is the biggest influence to 20th century American Art for African American artists. Woodruff is known for his beautiful mural designs created in various states including Alabama and Kansas City. But, Woodruff’s most significant importance is that he was the first artist to develop the first art departments in a Southern black university. It was called the Exhibition for African American Artists and was founded by Woodruff at Atlanta University in 1942. During that time you didn’t have really any venues that were truly allowing African American art to be apart of an exhibition. With Woodruff’s, it gave African American artists a way to get their artwork in to exhibitions. According to David C. Driskell, art professor at the University of Maryland-College Park, Exhibition for African American Artists “was the only venue where people of color could exhibit on a national scale without the forces of segregation.”

Born August 26, 1900 in Cairo, Illinois, Woodruff, lived with his mother and father. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee after the death of his father where he began his art journey. While attending Nashville’s Pearl High School, be became a cartoonist for the school newspaper. Once graduating from high school, Woodruff went on to attend Heron Art Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana during 1926. One year later he was on his way to France where he studied at Académie Moderne and the Académie Scandinave.

Digital Illustration created by @K_DougDE

Check out our new #DEBlackHistory collection with new artwork in honor of Hale Woodruff created by @K_DougDE courtesy of our affiliation partner Society6 Storefront by clicking the illustration shown above!

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