Courtesy of the Harn Museum of Art, Photography by Randy Batista

Native Forms (study), from the series “Art of the Negro”

Artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff (American, 1900 - 1980)

Date1950

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensionsframed: 28 3/4 x 26 3/4 x 1 1/4 in. (73 x 67.9 x 3.2 cm)
Visible canvas: 22 3/4 x 20 7/8 in. (57.8 x 53 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum purchase, gift of an anonymous donor with additional funds provided by exchange, gift of Helen Sawyer Farnsworth

Object number2005.17

Collections

MODERN

DescriptionStudy for one of six canvases in the mural series entitled "Art of the Negro", commissioned for the Trevor Arnett Library (in-situ) at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), completed in 1952. The upper zone of the study is dominated by the figure of Shango, the spirit of lightning and thunder in contemporary Yoruba culture in western Nigeria. To the left of Shango, the brightly colored masked figures evoke images from ancient rock paintings in southwestern Africa. On the right of Shango, African warriors bearing shields allude to the Zulu people of South Africa. In the lower half of the work, figures engage in mixing pigments and painting prehistoric wall paintings.