Shirley Woodson (b. 1936)

Speaker at the crossroads

 

Speaker at the Crossroads, 2013; acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, signed; titled and date on label verso.

Black Art Auction is pleased to offer, Speaker at the Crossroads, which was painted in 2013 and one of the eleven paintings featured in the Detroit Institute of Art’s 2021 exhibition, Shirley Woodson: Shield of the Nile Reflections.

“Artist, educator, collector, and advocate Shirley Woodson’s solo exhibition Shield of the Nile at the Detroit Institute of Arts presents her vibrant, dream-like paintings of Black bathers in rivers, honoring the diasporic myth that the Nile holds transformative and nurturing benefits for people of African descent. In this series, Woodson’s bathers appear with a distinctive visual vocabulary of human and animal life that symbolize the historic, spiritual, and cultural significance of the river. 

The artist emphasizes the Nile as a metaphor for Africa by combining figuration and expressionism to symbolize the metamorphic, historical, spiritual, and cultural significance of this ancient body of water. Painting in vibrant hues, humans appear alongside fragments or detailed renderings of shields, horses, fish, shells, stars, chariot wheels, pyramids, birds—the distinctive visual vocabulary for this theme”
— Detroit Institute of Arts (1)

Indeed, the Nile has been a source of fascination and inspiration for Woodson for much of her career.  As far back as 1984, she has been creating new pieces for her Shield of the Nile series, encompassing paintings, drawings, book works, assemblages, canvas constructions, and metal cutouts.

“History, time, vision, and the spectacular all have a basis in my painting whether thematic or conceptual. Reference to the historical may be coupled with ideas of familial energy. The spectacular refers most often to color and those areas it identifies”
— Shirley Woodson (2)

Her work is most certainly spectacular - expressionist and figurative, awash with vivid hues, her work commands your attention.  It is described aptly as a “phantasmic, adventurous odyssey” by Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson (now Chief Curator of the African American Museum and Library in Oakland, CA) in his essay on Woodson in Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists.  The journey is that of physical to spiritual; a romantic nostalgia for the ancestral continent and renewal in the waters of the Nile. (3)

“In this phantasmic setting, bathers enjoy wading, floating, swimming, and sailing in invigorating waters, while a vigilant figure bearing a hand-held shield stands guard. It is a recurrent motif on which Woodson makes numerous variations. This stolid protective presence serves to heighten the air of playfulness exhibited by the other figures.”
— Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson, Gumbo Ya Ya (4)

It is important to note that Gumbo Ya Ya was written in 1995.  Shirley Woodson is still doing all of this today at age 88.  In 2021 she was a recipient of the Kresge Eminent Artist award which honors an exceptional artist in the visual, performing or literary arts for lifelong professional achievements and dedication to metropolitan Detroit’s cultural community.

Photo: A Palette for the People: The Vibrant World of Shirley Woodson, The Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI, 2021; 20.

Woodson was born in 1936 in Pulaski, Tennessee and raised in Detroit.  She earned a BFA and an MFA from Wayne State University; completed graduate studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, and independently studied art in Europe.  She became an educator in the Detroit Public Schools and fought for resources that represented artists of color fairly. She is an art historian and collector. Works by Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, David Driskell, Al Loving, Betye Saar, and Carrie Mae Weems can be found in her collection.  She has even been credited with advising pre-eminent collector of African-American art, Dr. Walter O. Evans, to start his collection.  (5)

Woodson continues to live a purposeful life - in the studio, at least three days a week for 8 hours (6),  and those of us who have followed her career cannot wait to see what she does next. 

Photo: A Palette for the People: The Vibrant World of Shirley Woodson, The Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI, 2021; 69.

  1. “Shirley Woodson: Shield of the Nile Reflections: Detroit Institute of Arts Museum.” Detroit Institute of Art, dia.org/about/media-room/media-kits/shirley-woodson-shield-nile-reflections. Accessed 10 Sept. 2024.

  2. Demerson, Bamidele Agbasegbe. “Shirley Woodson.” Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists, Midmarch Arts Press, New York, 1995, p. 329.

  3. ibid.

  4. ibid, 330.

  5. Christian, Nichole. “Shirley Collects.” A Palette for the People: The Vibrant World of Shirley Woodson, The Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI, 2021, p. 69.

  6. Christian, Nichole. “Rooted in Bold.” A Palette for the People: The Vibrant World of Shirley Woodson, The Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI, 2021, p. 29.