Pigeon

Sculptor William Edmondson, the son of former slaves, never learned to read or write and held menial labor positions for much of his life. He began carving limestone in 1932 after experiencing a vision in which God commanded him to make tombstones. Using discarded building materials and railroad spikes, he chiseled powerful and simplified, yet realistic, images of religious figures, workers and animals. An artist of great tenderness and human compassion, his work captured in its subtle detail and elegant economical forms the essence of his subject. Its self-taught minimalist style was consonant with the strong movement toward abstraction and simplified forms then gaining currency with modernists in America. Eventually, he was eventually brought to the attention of Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1937, Edmondson became the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum.