Autumn in Georgia, ca. 1931
Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches

University Museums of the University of Delaware,
Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art

This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue recognize the rich legacy that Hale Aspacio Woodruff and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet forged in Atlanta amid the challenges and triumphs that they both experienced while living in the southeast from the late 1920s to early 1940s. 

As a painter, muralist and printmaker, Woodruff made tangible contributions to American art. However, a major exhibition of his work has not been presented in more than twenty-five years. Prophet was renowned as a sculptor in the United States and France, and created an impressive body of work while she lived in Paris from 1922 to 1934. Yet, most of her work is lost or destroyed: the locations of only nine of her sculptures are currently known.  This is one of a few exhibitions organized outside of Prophet’s home state of Rhode Island to showcase her work.

This loan exhibition presents sixteen paintings by Hale Woodruff seventeen paintings by Hale Woodruff,  representing his career from an early trip to Paris  (Chartres, 1928, watercolor on paper, Hampton University Museum) to two paintings from his late Celestial Gate series.  Six sculptures by Elizabeth Prophet including her best known work, Congolais (1931, Whitney Museum of American Art) represent her career in Paris and Atlanta.   Also exhibited are Woodruff 1935 series of linocut depicting buildings newly erected on the campus of the Atlanta University Center.

By the 1930s, their joint instructional efforts established the Atlanta University Center (AUC) as the premiere site in the Southeast for art instruction for African Americans. They brought further prestige to the AUC program as curators, researchers and productive practicing artists. 

The original version of this exhibiton was organized by the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA with support from the Getty Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.