Artist

Elijah Pierce

born Baldwyn, MS 1892-died Columbus, OH 1984
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Photo by Kojo Kamau, Courtesy of the Archives of the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
Born
Baldwyn, Mississippi, United States
Died
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Elijah Pierce described himself as a "peculiar" child, because he did not want to work on his father's farm like his brothers. Instead, he wandered in the woods surrounding his home and carved animals, figures, and names into tree trunks (Betty Garrett, "Elijah Pierce: Sculptor, Preacher, Barber," ARTnews, March 1974). He ran away as a teenager and traveled the country by hopping freight trains, eventually settling in Columbus, Ohio, where he opened a barber shop. In the late 1920s, Pierce carved a small elephant as a gift for his wife. She liked it so much that he resolved to make an entire zoo and started carving sculptures during every spare moment in the shop. Memories of his religious childhood inspired him to carve images based on scenes from the Bible. He believed God had given him the talent to carve, and that his life's purpose was to make "every sermon I never preached." (Betsa Marsh, "The Woodcarver of Long Street," Columbus Monthly, n.d.)

Exhibitions

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We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and

Related Books

Cover for the catalogue "We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection"
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and her son Douglas O. Robson, and will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July 1, 2022 through March 26, 2023.