By Parties Unknown

Hale Aspacio Woodruff, artist

1900–1980

By Parties Unknown, 1935

Portfolio/Series title: The Hale Woodruff Collection: Selections from the Atlanta Period

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: linocut

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 304 x 227 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 11 15/16 x 8 15/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 484 x 381 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 1/16 x 15 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Gift of Roger A. and Annette Shoemaker Rieger

Accession number: 2004.0176.05

Not on display

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Woodruff grew up attending segregated schools in Nashville, Tennessee. A renowned printmaker, painter, and muralist, he often explored his African heritage and used his art for social advocacy. These powerful works depict the long and troubled history of lynching in the United States, one of the many forms of physical violence enacted on black bodies in the early 20th century.
Giddap depicts an African American man in the last moments before his lynching. The raised fists, a tightly grasped rock, and a rifle in the hands of the white mob that surrounds him foreshadow further violence toward the victim’s body after the hanging. In Parties Unknown, Woodruff references a phrase white communities frequently used to avoid persecuting lynchers. Even though lynchings often drew large crowds like the one depicted in Giddap, the act was often attributed to “parties unknown” in public reports—despite the fact that the identities of the perpetrators were often widely recognized, including by law enforcement. Such practices allowed countless individuals to perform racially motivated violence without consequences.