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Christ Carrying the Cross
ca. 1972
Elijah Pierce
Born: Baldwyn, Mississippi 1892
Died: Columbus, Ohio 1984
carved, painted and varnished wood with glitter mounted on painted corrugated cardboard with paper collage, painted stones and glitter
24 3/4 x 20 x 7/8 in. (62.9 x 50.8 x 2.2 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
1986.65.260
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
“I enjoy [religious work] the most. You know, some great writer once said, ‘One picture is worth a thousand words.’ And I thought of the book, The Bible: one picture is worth a thousand of those words! So my mind just went thatta way.” The artist, quoted in Elijah Pierce Wood Carver, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1973, exhibition catalogue
Elijah Pierce described his carvings as sermons, and used them to teach people about the Bible (Elijah Pierce Wood Carver, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1973, exhibition catalogue). This carving shows Christ with the cross just before he was crucified. Pierce filled the image with swirling colors and gesturing figures to evoke the crowds of people who witnessed Jesus’s crucifixion, although it is difficult to tell whether they are cheering or weeping over his impending death.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Figure(s) in exterior - religious
Religion - angel
Religion - New Testament - Christ
Religion - New Testament - Crucifixion
sculpture
folk art
paper
paperboard
readymade
wood
About Elijah Pierce
Born: Baldwyn, Mississippi 1892 Died: Columbus, Ohio 1984
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