"Hale Wooddruff Aspacio"{August 26,1900-September 6,1980}

Artist and art educator was born to George and Augustin Woodruff  in Cairo,Illinois.After his

father died,he and his mother moved to East Nashville,Tennessee. Hale showed and early interest in art and was the cartoonist for his high school newspaper.In 1920,Hale entered the Herron Art School Indianapolis,earning money as a political cartoonist for the The Indianapolis Ledger.After brief move to Chicago,Hale returned to Indianapolis in 1923,where he developed one of the country's most successful black branches of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).He continued to paint and met such notables as Walyer White.W.E.B. Dubois,and Dr.John Hope,the president of Morehouse College and later Atlanta University.Through his successes in local art competitions and displays in exhibits,Hale's work became increasingly popular.He traveled to Paris,France in 1928 with the financial backing of supporters in Indinanapolis.In Paris he attended Academies Scandinave and Moderne,and studied under Henry Ossawa Tanner,a leading contemporary black artist.While there he explored the impact of African art on twentieth-century modern art.Hale returned to the United States in 1931 to teach at Atlanta University and established the university's art department.In 1936,Hale studied under famed muralist Diego Rivera in Mexico,drwaing parallels between Mexican art and African art.In 1942,Hale developed the Atlanta University Art Annuals,a national exhibition of the works of black artiststhat ran successfully until 1970,and established the university's permanent collection of African-American art.In 1943 he received the Julius Rosenwald Foundation fellowship for creative painting,moving to New York City with his wife.Three years later he was offered a teaching position at New York University,remaining until his retirement in 1968.During his years in Atlanta and New York,he continued with his work,completing three mural series.The Negro in California History(1949),a collaboration with Charles Alston,on display at the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company  in California;The Amistad Mutiny(1939),displayed at Talladega College;and his most important work,The Art of the Negro(1951),displayed at Clark Atlanta Univeraity Art Galleries,which traces the history of African art and its impact on modern art.He died in New York.