Woodruff, Hale (Hale Aspacio), 1900-1980

Dates

• Existence: 1900-1980

Biographical Statement

Hale Woodruff was a printmaker, draftsman, painter, and educator, who served on the faculty of Atlanta University and established the university's art program, as well as on the faculty of New York University.

Hale Aspacio Woodruff was born the only son to George and Augusta Woodruff on August 26, 1900, in Cairo, Illinois. He and his mother moved to Nashville, Tennessee, after the death of his father. Woodruff had an interest in art, but was denied art education due to segregation. He did, however, serve as cartoonist on his high school newspaper.

After graduating from high school in 1918, Woodruff studied at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. He studied landscape painting under William Forsyth while at Herron and served as a cartoonist for The Indianapolis Ledger, an African American newspaper. Woodruff also studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1926, Woodruff received a bronze award from the Harmon Foundation for his painting The Old Women, which allowed him to study abroad. He left for France in 1927 and, during his time there, made a pilgrimage to Henry Ossawa Tanner, which had a profound effect on Woodruff. After living in France for four years, he joined the faculty of Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University) in 1931. As the first art instructor at the university, Woodruff promoted the art department greatly, which became a center for young Black artists. He began the Atlanta University Art Annuals (1942-70), a series of twenty-nine national art exhibitions for African American artists. The development of the university's historic collection of African American art was also due in great part to Woodruff's efforts.

Woodruff's early work reflected his exposure to cubism while living in France during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was also influenced by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, with whom he studied. The landscapes of the segregated south led him embrace a regionalist style popular during that era. Woodruff completed three mural series: The Amistad Mutiny for Talladega College, The Negro in California History for the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in California (in collaboration with Charles Alston), and the Art of the Negro at Clark Atlanta.

In 1946, Woodruff moved to New York, where he taught at New York University until his retirement in 1968. In 1963, he and Romare Bearden established a weekly discussion group for African American artists called Spiral. While the group only lasted three years, it laid the groundwork for the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Woodruff served as the chair of the visual arts committee for the United States exhibition at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal.

In 1934, Woodruff married Theresa Ada Barker, a teacher from Topeka, Kansas. The couple had one son, Roy, the following year. Hale Woodruff died in New York City on September 6, 1980.

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