African Headdress

Portfolio TitleSelections from the Atlanta Period

Artist Hale Woodruff (American, 1900 - 1980)

Printer Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop (American)

Date1931-1940; printed 1996

MediumLinocut on lana royal bright white thai mulberry chin colle paper

DimensionsImage: 6 × 4 inches (15.24 × 10.16 cm)
Sheet: 19 × 14 13/16 inches (48.26 × 37.62 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of The Print Society in honor of Dr. Leo Goertz and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and E.T. Williams Jr. of Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Object number2018.4.7

SignedA blind stamp of the Blackburn emblem at the bottom left edge. The artist's blind stamp at the bottom right edge, "(C) Hale Woodruff"

Inscribed"13/75" in pencil at the bottom left corner

On View

Not on view

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThe vertically oriented black-and-white print African Headdress features the nude torso and head of an African woman that emerges from the lower left corner of the composition. The figure’s proper left hand is raised to her neck around which she wears a double strand of round beads. Her elongated oval head is crowned with four arcs of similar round beads. The upper quarter of the composition is filled with a stylized leaf motif. Below and to the right of the woman’s head and neck are more vegetal forms. The lower right corner of the composition includes more stylized leaves represented by long, vertical forms.Provenance

Provenance

Auldlyn Higgins Williams and E.T. Williams, Jr., Sag Harbor, NY, 1996–2018;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 2018.

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