Wilmer jennings biography

Wilmer Angier Jennings (1910–1990) was an.
Wilmer Angier Jennings was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wilmer Angier Jennings was an African-American printmaker, painter, and jeweler.

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Sale 2599 - Lot 19

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

WILMER JENNINGS (1910 - 1990)
Shack.

Wood engraving on cream wove paper, circa 1938. 127x101 mm; 203x139 mm; 8x5 1/2 inches, wide margins. Signed, titled and numbered 7/25 in pencil, lower margin.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, printmaker and designer Wilmer Jennings attended Morehouse College and studied under Hale Woodruff, who introduced him to the principles of modernism. Under the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA in 1934, they worked together on two notable murals that represented the African American experience: The Negro in Modern American Life: Agriculture and Rural Life, Literature, Music, and Art and The Dream. Unfortunately, both murals were destroyed.

After graduating from Morehouse College, Jennings moved to New England to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (1933). Hired by the Rhode Island WPA in 1935, he created works that portrayed the economic hardships of African Americans during the Depression. The subjects of his lat

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Black History Month: Woodruff, Lewis, Jennings

Curator's Corner

abstractionAfrican American artBlack History Month 2025Hale WoodruffHarlem RenaissanceNorman LewisprintmakingSpiral GroupTwo Centuries of Black American Art

By Karl Cole, posted on Feb 10, 2025

My celebration of Black History Month continues with three more artists who are very important in the history of art—Hale Woodruff, Norman Lewis, and Wilmer Jennings. They represent the divergent views that existed among African American artists from the Harlem Renaissance through the 1960s about what African Americans should depict in their art. Some believed that Black artists should represent scenes of the Black experience. Others advocated for exploring their own visions so African American artists could be competitive in the ever-changing fabric of modern art, regardless of the “Blackness” of the art. The dichotomy has proven how important the art of African Americans has been, and remains to this day, in the evolution of American art history.

Hale Woodruff (1900–1980, United State

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Printmaker, artist, and jeweler, Wilmer Jennings moved to Providence from Atlanta in 1935.

A graduate of Morehouse College, Jennings studied with renowned artist Hale Woodruff. Jennings and his mentor, both WPA (Works Progress Administration) artists, collaborated on the creation of two murals. "The Negro in Modern American Life: Agriculture and Rural Life, Literature, Music and Art" and "The Dream" was once displayed (1934) at the David T. Howard School and the School of Social Work University in Atlanta. The images have since been destroyed.

Jennings, who remained close with Woodruff throughout his career eventually left Atlanta to attended the Rhode Island School of Design. When he matriculated from RISD, Jennings made history; he was one of the first Afric