Elephant

Elijah Pierce, Elephant, ca. 1978, painted and carved wood, pebbles, plastic, and rhinestone, 17 1⁄2 × 4 × 11 7⁄8 in. (44.5 × 10.2 × 30.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.60

Artwork Details

Title
Elephant
Artist
Date
ca. 1978
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
17 1⁄2 × 4 × 11 7⁄8 in. (44.5 × 10.2 × 30.2 cm)
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
painted and carved wood, pebbles, plastic, and rhinestone
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — elephant
Object Number
2016.38.60
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.60

Artwork Description

Elijah Pierce was a lay preacher who understood the power of making his sermons visible, which he did by carving parables, moral tales, and tributes into bas-relief wood panels and small sculptures. One year he carved this small elephant as a gift for his wife’s birthday. She was so taken with it, he promised her an entire zoo. For Pierce, the carved and painted animals evoked stories, sometimes beasts from the Book of Genesis, other times creatures from the folktales of his youth.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
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