HALE WOODRUFF (1900-1980)

Hale Woodruff was an apprentice to Diego Rivera in the 1930s, exploring a variegated portrayal of figures. Though known as a muralist, Woodruff completed a series of torso drawings and paintings through the 1970s after his retirement from the faculty of New York University. Torso, Number 1 (1971) and Torso, Number 2 (1971) reside in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His Two Torsos (circa 1977) painting is currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Drawn almost ten years earlier, the present work was featured in the 2000 exhibition, COLOR: The Chicago Black Fine Art Exposition, hosted at Navy Pier by Oprah Winfrey.