Elijah Pierce's America
Reviewed by Ed Voves
According to the strict, tightly focused definitions of art scholarship, Elijah Pierce (1892-1984) was a "self-taught" artist. This categorization is essentially correct - but not entirely. The African-American wood carver, whose works are featured in a major retrospective at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, certainly learned by doing. He did, however, receive a little help.
When he was still a youth, Pierce's uncle, Lewis Wallace, taught him the basics of wood carving - nothing fancy, how to use a pen knife and a chisel, which remained Pierce's "go-to" tools. Later, during the 1920's and 30's, Pierce's wife, Cornelia, helped paint his carved scenes and figurines. She, also assisted him in presenting touring displays of his art in the American South and Mid-West states.
And then, there was the direct inspiration Elijah Pierce received from God Almighty.
Pierce was a devout Christian and a gifted preacher. He emphatically stated that God spoke to him and he felt compelled to carve a message from "on high" repeatedly in his sculptures: your life is a book and every day is a page.
Ed Voves, Photo (2020) Elijah Pierce's Your Life is a Book, 1940's
Pierce felt God's hand as well as heard His voice. He experienced at least three divine interventions in his life or "conversion experiences." One involved a near-death encounter, which took place around 1917. According to Pierce, he was struck speechless, apparently dead, after reaching for a Sears, Roebuck catalogue when he should have been reading the Bible.
In a 1979 New York Times interview, Pierce recalled the incident as God's way of "just showing you my power." Pierce told Gaylen Moore of the Times:
The house was full of people, screamin' and cryin'. They said I was dead. I didn't feel any pain. I just went out like the sun going behind a cloud. Then I came back. Since then, I'm afraid of the Lord... Every piece of work I carve is a message, a sermon. My carvings are all preaching one important message. It's what Jesus taught us when he was here on earth: Love ye one another. If I love you and you love me, I won't do you any harm and you won't do me any harm.
Pierce had enough brushes with danger to always value the precept of "Love ye one another." He narrowly avoided death while working on a railroad construction crew, but the real peril he faced came from a white mob in 1912. Returning to his home in Baldwyn, Georgia, after playing a game of baseball in Tupelo, Mississippi, Pierce was arrested and falsely accused of murder. Fortunately, he was exonerated and, acting on advice to travel by back roads to avoid vengeful "regulators," he reached safety.
A half-century later, Pierce carved a powerful depiction of the event. The episodic treatment of the incident recalls great narrative sequences in art history like ancient Egyptian wall paintings or the bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column in the Roman Forum. Deceptively simple, Pierce's carvings also evoke the hugely-popular Sunday comic pages of American newspapers.
Elijah Pierce, Elijah Escapes the Mob, 1950's
However interesting these parallels with other art forms are, Elijah Escapes the Mob needs to be appreciated as a primal expression of the artist's lived experience - and belief. The symbols carved at the very top of Elijah Escapes the Mob raise the unfolding drama beyond a lucky escape to the portrayal of an act of redemption.
Like all good story-tellers, Pierce became adept at keeping "the story going." The same is true for preachers of God's word and Old Master artists: expand the scope of the tale in order to drive home a powerful message or moral.
Pierce found a way to link carved scenes such as Elijah Escapes the Mob to achieve a truly epic style. He created panels presenting multiple episodes of vivid imagery. These, much like the Stations of the Cross which appear in Roman Catholic churches, illustrated incidents from sacred scripture in an episodic manner. Some were joined with metal hinges to create a diptych. The Barnes exhibition has one of these amazing diptychs on view.
Ed Voves, Photo (2020) Gallery view Elijah Pierce's America, showing Bible Scenes, c.1936, collection of John Jerit
Interestingly, a similar approach to visualizing narrative was being innovated by artists for Hollywood studios during the 1930's, at the same time Pierce was carving his depictions of Biblical events. Webb Smith of the Disney Studio and William Cameron Menzies, art director for Gone with the Wind, drew illustrated storyboards to plot the sequential flow of motion pictures.
Very few of Pierce's panels have been preserved. Most of them were disassembled so that the individual carved scenes could more readily be collected. The greatest example of Pierce's multi-scene oeuvre, however, did survive and it is a jaw-dropping sensation: The Book of Wood.
Ed Voves, Photo (2020) Elijah Pierce's The Book of Wood, 1932
The Book of Wood was created in 1932, the nadir of the Great Depression, when Pierce, a talented barber, often faced unemployment. He carved thirty-three scenes depicting the life of Jesus, at the behest of his wife Cornelia. These were mounted on massive cardboard "pages" and bound to form a truly, one-in-a-kind testament.
Initially, Pierce “thought it was the dumbest thing I ever heard of.” But his wife - and God - thought differently.
Elijah and Cornelia Pierce took The Book of Wood on tour during the 1930's and 40's. The stunning, pictorial volume provided a visual counterpoint to Pierce's sermons to evangelical Christian congregations. The Pierces raised some modest funds from these tours, enough to keep body and soul together during these difficult years.
Sadly, Cornelia Pierce died from cancer in 1948. Elijah Pierce kept The Book of Wood on display in the barbershop in Columbus, Ohio, which he was able to establish in 1951 after years of working for other entrepreneurs. Now in the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, The Book of Wood is an authentic expression of religious faith and of artistic skill.
Pierce also carved individual figures and sculptural tableaux. The subject matter was largely drawn from the Bible, including Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and the Crucifixion of Jesus. These were notable incidents of anguish and pain, ultimately redeemed by God's intervention, saving Isaac at the last minute and empowering the Resurrection of Jesus.
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