Hale Woodruff: a trailblazing African American artist

The muralist and printmaker built an art department from nothing at Atlanta University, and the prints of that period remain his most available work.

By Sheila Gibson StoodleySeptember 17, 2026

Above: 'Selections from the Atlanta Period,' c. 1931-46, printed 1996 sold for $3,200 plus buyer's premium at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, in October 2025. Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

NEW YORK, NY — Hale Aspacio Woodruff's (1900-1980) contributions to 20th-century American art could easily fill a book. His Amistad murals of 1939 to 1940 are believed to be the first artworks of the 20th century to depict the now-legendary 1839 uprising on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. The works were commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the incident in which African men who were kidnapped and held on board to be sold as slaves killed their captors. After the ship ran aground in New York, the men were put on trial for piracy and murder as Spain sought their return as 'salvage cargo'. Instead, the judge declared them free men able to return to West Africa.

Above: Hale Woodruff, 1900-1980, Giddap sold for $1,500 plus buyer's premium at Black Art Auction, Saint Louis, in December 2025. Image courtesy of Black Art Auction and LiveAuctioneers.

Born in Cairo, Illinois, Woodruff grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and over time would become one of the region's leading Black artists. He created many socially conscious works showing what life was like in the 1930s and 1940s for people of color. He was a skilled draftsman as well as a painter and created many canvases, woodblock prints and murals that depicted the African American experience accurately and sensitively, but not in a sentimental manner.

Above: HALE WOODRUFF (1900 - 1980) Sunday Promenade. sold for $2,200 plus buyer's premium at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, in April 2025. Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

From 1945 through 1968, Woodruff lived in New York City, where he painted and taught art at New York University. The 1950s were arguably his most successful years. Carnival, a 1958 canvas, is 'an excellent and important example of Hale Woodruff's postwar abstraction, and his largest abstract canvas to come to auction', according to Swann Auction Galleries' catalog description. The painting demonstrates the artist's progression in abstract art during the postwar era and is as exuberant as its title implies, with energetic brushwork and color. It remains the top price achieved for a work by Woodruff at auction on LiveAuctioneers.

Carnival by Hale Woodruff — Above: 'Carnival' by Hale Woodruff sold for $550,000 plus buyer's premium at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, in October 2021. Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

Woodruff had a definite fondness for landscapes and such works that come up at auction achieve four or five-figure prices.

Hale Woodruff landscape oil on canvas — Above: Landscape oil on canvas painting sold for $4,250 plus buyer's premium at Kaminski Auctions, Beverly, in May 2024. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Above: HALE WOODRUFF (1900 - 1980) Untitled (Abstraction in Black, Yellow and Green). sold for $7,000 plus buyer's premium at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, in February 2025. Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

Hale Woodruff paved the way for African American artists to be recognized first and foremost as talented individuals instead of codified by their heritage. His works continue to attract art collectors for their raw honesty, bright colors, and their ability to tell a story.

Above: Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), A Celestial Gate, 1977. sold for $1,700 plus buyer's premium at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, in April 2026. Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

Sheila Gibson Stoodley writes about auctions in North America for Antiques Trade Gazette. She has been the associate editor for Auction Central News and has written and edited for Robb Report, Art & Antiques magazine, and Andrew Harper online. She also authored The Hot Bid, a blog devoted to intriguing and delightful lots coming up at auction.