Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College

8/9/2019 Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College

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24 | February 2015 | élan magazine

Hale Woodruff Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection

“The Underground Railroad,” 1940, oil on

canvas, 6’ x 10’

HALE WOODRUFF’S MURALS AT TALLADEGA COLLEGEBY MARY ELOISE H. LEAKE

Rising Up

DAYTRIPPER

I n 1938, Buell Gallagher, the white president of

Talladega College, the oldest historically black

private college in Alabama, commissioned black

artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff to paint murals for itsnew Savery Library. At this time in the South, when

money was tight and art galleries were closed to black

artists, Gallagher’s move was astonishing.

Woodruff was the college’s adjunct art professor, and

he also ran the one-man art department at Atlanta Uni-

versity (now Clark Atlanta University). But the respected

artist could have had no clue that his six paintings would

be worth over $50 million today.

“In addition to being great works of art, the

murals serve as a vehicle for telling stories thatilluminate our history as Americans,” says Dr. Jacque-

lyn Serwer, co-curator with Dr. Rhea Combs of the

traveling exhibit, Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals

at Talladega College. Originally scheduled for the

future National Museum of African American History

and Culture, the exhibit is now on display at the

National Museum of American History in Washington,

D.C.Vividly portraying man’s innate desire for freedom

and education, the two trios of the imposing mural

cycle crystallize 100 years of history by focusing on

these subjects: the dramatic Amistad revolt, the Un-

derground Railroad, Talladega College and Talladega’s

Savery Library.

Thanks to a collaboration between Atlanta’s High

Museum of Art and Talladega, the canvas-backed murals

were removed from the Savery Library in March 2011,

restored by the High at a cost of $116,000 and sent on amulti-year national tour. This is the first time–and prob-

ably the last–that the murals will travel nationally.

Serwer says viewers will be engaged by Woodruff’s

action-packed visual chronicles revealing historical sub-



élan magazine | February 2015 | 25

plots and showcasing characters with compelling back

stories.

Thanks to the artist’s 1936 summer internship withMexican muralist Diego Rivera and the popularity of

Steven Spielberg’s 1997 movie, “Amistad,” the first trio–

originally saluting the centennial of the Amistad revolt–

is the big attraction.

At roughly 6 feet by 10 feet, the first Amistad mural

is packed with passion. Woodruff delineates the swirling

energy and agility of tribal leader Cinque and his kid-

napped comrades fighting their captors. The Africans

triumph, but the slave ship enters American waters and

the men are imprisoned. A long court battle ensues.

Peopled with the determined Cinque, his compatri-

ots, the slave traders and even Woodruff himself, the

panoramic second mural–about 6 feet by 20 feet–is a

feast of expressive faces and body language, conveying

the intense scene at the U.S. District Court at New Ha-

ven, Connecticut. Although the Africans are judged to be

free men, the decision is appealed. The case finally goesto the Supreme Court with former U.S. President John

Quincy Adams representing the men who are finally

freed. Many consider this the nation’s first civil rights

case.

Woodruff’s final mural of the cycle, measuring

around 6 feet by 10 feet, shows the survivors–plus a few

white supporters who later form the American Mission-

ary Association (AMA)–heading to the Amistad to return

to Sierra Leone. Instrumental in the men’s defense, the

AMA aided in establishing schools and colleges for freed

slaves, including Talladega College in 1867.

Born in Illinois in 1900, Woodruff grew up in Nash-

ville. After studying art in Indianapolis and at the Art

Institute of Chicago, he spent four years in Paris where

[Thanks to] “the popu-

larity of Steven Spiel- berg’s 1997 movie,

“ Amistad,” the first

trio–originally saluting

the centennial of the

Amistad revolt–is the

big attraction.”

Top: “The Trial of the Amistad Captives,”

1939, 6’ x 20’; and “The Repatriation of the

Freed Captives,” 1939, 6’ x 10’

Both are oil on canvas.



26 | February 2015 | élan magazine

Top: “Opening Day at Talladega College,1940,” oil on canvas, 6’ x 20’; and “ The

Building of Savery Library, 1940,” oil on

canvas, 6’ x 10’ All images courtesy High Museum of Art/

Talladega College Consortium

he was introduced to Cézanne’s and Picasso’s works,

especially the latter’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,”

which clicked with Woodruff’s appreciation of Africanart and Cubism. But with these murals, the influence of

Rivera’s bold colors and the affirmation of Woodruff’s

own social conscience are evident, according to a 1968

interview with the artist conducted for the Smithsonian

Institution’s Archives of American Art by Alabama’s

noted cultural pioneer Al Murray.

In addition to teaching and painting at Atlanta Uni-

versity, Woodruff launched its Annual Exhibition of Ne-

gro Art in 1942. By 1945, it was the country’s most signif-

icant venue for black artists. Forty-five years later, it was

discontinued as black artists entered the mainstream.

In 1943, Woodruff accepted a teaching position

at New York University. While moving into modern-

ism and abstraction, he continued to encourage the art

world’s embrace of black art, helping found Spiral, a

group of black artists who addressed social injustice in

the early ’60s.A little-known artist, Woodruff left a surprisingly

large footprint on American art. Without his vision and

influence, black art might have taken much longer to be-

come an accepted component of our country’s culture.

And without the initiative of Atlanta’s High Museum,

Woodruff’s six magnificent murals might have slowly

deteriorated, never to be seen and appreciated nation-

ally.

The mural exhibit, presented in three segments, maybe viewed in the National Museum of American His-

tory’s second floor east gallery: Rising Up highlights the

trio of Amistad Murals and Woodruff’s early composi-

tions; Fostering a Social Conscience spotlights the artist’s

works on housing and his small dramatic linocuts; and

“Born in Illinois in

1900, Woodruff grewup in Nashville [and]

spent four years in

Paris where he was

introduced to Cézanne

and Picasso’s works.”


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Exercising Freedom, which includes the two TalladegaCollege murals, focuses on the importance of educa-

tion to the former slaves. A short video shows the mural

restoration process.

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega

College is on view through March 1 at the NationalMuseum of American History.

National Museum of American History

http://americanhistory.si.edu/

“The Mutiny On The Amistad,” (detail),1939, oil on canvas, 6’ x 10’

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College

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