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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
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Elephant
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1978
- Location
- 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
- Keywords
- Animal — elephant
- Object Number
- 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
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
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 Douglas O. Robson.