Oil on canvas, circa 1968. 912x610 mm; 36x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Signed and titled in ink on the stretcher bars verso.
Provenance: the artist; gift to Danetta Sanders, New York; thence by descent to the current owner. A copy of a letter dated June 13, 1968 from the artist to Ms. Sanders indicates the painting she had seen at an exhibition was to be a gift.
Exhibited: Hale Woodruff 50 Years of His Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, April 29 - June 24, 1979, with the printed label on the painting back.
Illustrated: Hale Woodruff 50 Years of His Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 1979, p. 38.
This series incorporates the forms derived from Ashanti gold weights and the doors of dwellings of Dogon chiefs in Mali. There is some debate about the date of this series as the artist did not date his work and the characteristics appear in paintings dating as early as 1946, continuing into the 1960s. The recent Spelman College exhibition dated some Celestial Gate paintings 1950-53. However, in this case, the artist's letter to the owner gives us a much clearer indication that he continued this series well into the 1960s.
