Media Alert
Hale Woodruff and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: A 75th Anniversary Celebration at Spelman College
Atlanta (Nov. 14, 2006) Be among the first to see “Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy,” which opens at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007, and runs through May 12, 2007. Considered pioneering artists, Hale Woodruff and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet established the art programs in the Atlanta University Center in the 1930s. Despite segregation, Woodruff and Prophet created one of the premiere institutions for art instruction for African Americans. In light of their Atlanta accomplishments, “Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy “ positions Woodruff and Prophet as the artist-educators and institution builders who challenged and transformed the existing academic structure and offerings for African Americans.
Curated by Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and Amalia K. Amaki, Ph.D., curator of the Paul R. Jones Collection and professor of Art, Art History and Black American Studies at the University of Delaware, Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy brings the lives, efforts and work of Woodruff and Prophet into a critical dialogue for the first time.
Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy also commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Spelman College Department of Art, which Woodruff and Prophet founded, and celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. While Woodruff is widely recognized for originating the Atlanta University Annual Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Prints by Negro Artists — an art competition that lasted from 1942 to 1970 — his own artistic accomplishments have not been adequately examined. Although Prophet created an impressive body of work (most of which are currently lost or destroyed) and was regarded as one of the most talented American sculptors by American and European critics alike in the late 1920s and 1930s, until now her work has never been the subject of an exhibition outside of her home state of Rhode Island.
The project began as an effort to catalogue Spelman College’s permanent collection and conserve the 20 works by Hale Woodruff (1900 – 1980), several which had fallen into disrepair and rendered unsuitable for exhibition. The discovery of additional works by Woodruff and a watercolor by sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890 – 1960), coupled with the aim to present new research on these two under-examined artists, expanded the scope of the project. The focused examination of the College’s holdings evolved into a research, conservation and exhibition project that involved more than 29 institutions, 10 private collectors and more than 75 works. Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy unveils the recently conserved works in the College’s collection, features more than 50 paintings and works on paper by Woodruff and presents all existing t sculptures by Prophet for the first time.
The limited edition catalogue includes contributions by Amalia Amaki, Ph.D., Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., Richard Long, Ph.D., M. Akua McDaniel, Ph.D., Anne Collins Smith and Mary Parks Washington.
Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy is made possible by the Getty Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation Inc. Additional support is provided by the Fulton County Arts Council and the Georgia-Pacific Foundation.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Cairo, Ill., on August 26, 1900, Hale Woodruff contributed to the development of African American art. He demonstrated an early interest in art by working as a cartoonist for his high school newspaper, and later developed a following in Chicago through local exhibitions. In 1928 Woodruff won a Harmon Foundation award, which enabled him to travel to Paris and study painting at the Académie Moderne and the Académie Scandinave. While in Paris, Woodruff, like many French modernists, began incorporating African art and forms into his work. In 1931, Woodruff was invited by Atlanta University president Dr. John Hope to create an art department that would serve the five historically Black colleges and universities, which comprised the Atlanta University Center. Woodruff was a visionary artist and art educator who engaged his students in social issues and their surrounding community. By the mid-1930s, the AUC had become the premiere site in the southeast for art instruction for African Americans in large part due to his efforts.
Woodruff is heralded for establishing the Atlanta Annuals, an important competition, which was featured in TIME magazine in 1947 and continued until 1970. Woodruff received several awards including a travel grant from Teachers College that allowed him to study mural painting in Mexico with Diego Rivera in 1936 and a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1943, which enabled him to live in New York for a year and concentrate on his own work. In 1946 New York University offered him a teaching position and he resigned from the AUC. While in New York, he made a significant impact on the New York School of Abstraction. The Amistad murals at Talladega College, the Art of the Negro mural at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) and his extensive Celestial Gate series are among his most well known works. Woodruff retired from New York University in 1968 as Professor Emeritus.
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, on March 9, 1890 in Warwick Rhode Island, was the first African American woman to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. While her focus at RISD was freehand drawing and painting with a particular interest in portraiture, by the late 1920s and early 1930s she emerged as one of the most talented American sculptors by American and European critics alike. Finding few opportunities as a portrait painter in Rhode Island or New York, in 1922, like many African American expatriates, she went to Paris to pursue her career as a sculptor. In 1923 Prophet entered l’Ecole Nationale Superieure de Beaux-Arts, where she studied for two years. Until the mid 1930s, despite extreme hardship, hunger and impoverished conditions, she managed to create an impressive body of work, pursue her studies, have her work featured in several exhibitions and travel to the United States to attract new patrons. Congolais (1931), which is in the collection of the Whitney American Art Museum and Discontent (ca. 1929), which is in the Rhode Island School of Art Museum, are her most well known works. Photographs suggest that Prophet was quite prolific while living in Paris. However, most of her sculptures are currently lost or destroyed and only 12 exist.
When she arrived in Atlanta to teach in the Atlanta University Center in 1934, she introduced sculpture into the curriculum and made an immediate impact on the course offerings. While emotional distress and turbulent relationships resulted in her extreme anguish, she was a committed teacher until she resigned from her post in 1944 and returned to Rhode Island.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
In conjunction with Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art offers an exciting schedule of interdisciplinary public programs. For more information, please visit www.spelman.edu/museum.
ABOUT THE SPELMAN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF FINE ART
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art provides a learning environment for students, faculty, staff and alumnae. Museum activities enhance the cultural and intellectual development of the College’s community through the collection, preservation, exhibition and interpretation of important works of art. Artists affiliated with the Atlanta University Center are of particular interest. As the only museum in the nation that focuses on works by and about women of the African Diaspora in its collections, exhibitions and programs, the Museum serves as a complement to local, regional, national and international art resources.
ADDRESS
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is located in the Atlanta University Center on the Spelman College campus in the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center at 350 Spelman Lane.
ADMISSION
Suggested donation $3/parking $3
HOURS
The Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. The Museum is closed Sundays, Mondays, major holidays and official College breaks. For more information on the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, visit www.spelman.edu/museum.
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Spelman College:
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is the only historically Black college in
the nation to be included on the U.S. News and World Report's list of top
75 "Best Liberal Arts Colleges — Undergraduate," 2005. Located in Atlanta,
Ga., this private, historically Black women's college boasts outstanding
alumnae, including Children's Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman;
U.S. Foreign Service Director General Ruth Davis; authors Tina McElroy Ansa and
Pearl Cleage and actress LaTanya Richardson. More than 83 percent of the
full-time faculty members have Ph.D.s or other terminal degrees and the
student-faculty ratio is 12:1. Annually, nearly one-third of Spelman
students receive degrees in the sciences. The students number more than
2,186 and represent 43 states and 34 foreign countries. For more
information regarding Spelman College, visit: www.spelman.edu.
