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Elijah Pierce
American, 1892–1984
Elijah Pierce was a member of the earliest generation of twentieth-century self-taught African-American artists whose work was documented in the seminal exhibition "Black Folk Art in America" in 1982. Pierce, originally from Mississippi, lived and worked for most of his life in Columbus, Ohio. Employed as a barber, Pierce was also a preacher, and his religious experiences colored his work and his subjects for most of his career as an artist. He told a reporter in 1979, "My carvings look nice, but if they don't have a story behind them, then what's the use? Every piece of work I carve is a message, a sermon."*
"Moses and the Table of Stone" is an image familiar from the story of Moses in the Old Testament. When Moses went to Mount Sinai and encountered God in the burning bush, he was given the Ten Commandments, which he then transmitted to the Jews as the primary law of Judaism, and later Christianity.
"Black Folk Art in America," 1982, p. 120.
American, 1892–1984
Moses and the Table of Stone
1942
Object Type:
Sculpture
Dimensions:
21 3/4 in. x 11 1/2 in. (55.25 cm x 29.21 cm)
Medium and Support:
Polychromed wood relief
Accession Number:
1984.0012
Credit Line:
Gift of Lila and Ralph Franco
Currently On View
Elijah Pierce was a member of the earliest generation of twentieth-century self-taught African-American artists whose work was documented in the seminal exhibition "Black Folk Art in America" in 1982. Pierce, originally from Mississippi, lived and worked for most of his life in Columbus, Ohio. Employed as a barber, Pierce was also a preacher, and his religious experiences colored his work and his subjects for most of his career as an artist. He told a reporter in 1979, "My carvings look nice, but if they don't have a story behind them, then what's the use? Every piece of work I carve is a message, a sermon."*
"Moses and the Table of Stone" is an image familiar from the story of Moses in the Old Testament. When Moses went to Mount Sinai and encountered God in the burning bush, he was given the Ten Commandments, which he then transmitted to the Jews as the primary law of Judaism, and later Christianity.
"Black Folk Art in America," 1982, p. 120.
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