Hale Woodruff

Hale Aspacio Woodruff was born on August 26, 1900, in Cairo, Illinois and died in New York City on September 6, 1980. Hale Woodruff, a fine artist, nationally known printmaker, draftsman, and painter, was a member of the Atlanta University faculty for fifteen years. While teaching at Atlanta University, he was responsible for establishing the university's art program. Woodruff's abstract and semi-abstract oils show strong affinities with the works of modern European masters. His free, broad brushstrokes convey colorful impressions of rhythmic movements in nature-the rushing sea or the rippling plain-presented in bright, clear, resonant colors: whites, deep blues, rusty browns, yellows, reds, and pinks. He is also an important mural painter, where his talent for design gives cohesion and interest to the historical subjects he chooses.

Upon returning home from a four-year sojourn to France in the 1920s, Woodruff joined the faculty of Atlanta University in 1931. It was his initial venture with art instruction and made him one of the first college professors of studio art in the state of Georgia. In the course of a decade, Woodruff developed a "one-man art department," promoted a plethora of visual arts activities, and initiated the Atlanta University Art Annuals (1942-70), twenty-nine national art exhibitions for black artists. Woodruff's early work reflects his exposure to cubism while living in France during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Woodruff was inspired by Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera.