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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Big Wind in Georgia
Hale Aspacio Woodruff (American, 1900–1980)
about 1933–1936
Medium/Technique
Oil on Masonite
Dimensions
57.8 x 76.2 cm (22 3/4 x 30 in.)
Credit Line
The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection
Accession Number2011.1827
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsPaintings
Georgia’s characteristic red clay soil anchors the bottom of this swirling composition in which both natural and man-made objects are blasted free from their footings. This rootlessness could reflect both the economic uncertainties of the 1930s and such weather-related calamities as the tornadoes that shattered parts of the state in 1936. Woodruff taught art in Atlanta from 1931 to 1946, when he moved to New York and shifted to an abstract style.
InscriptionsLower right: Hale Woodruff
ProvenanceAcquired from the artist by Mrs. M. Travis Grubbs, New Zealand; by 1997, with Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York; April 1997, sold by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery to John Axelrod, Boston; 2011, sold by Axelrod to the MFA. (Accession date: June 22, 2011)
CopyrightEstate of Hale Woodruff/© Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.