Inspiration can be unexpected, and spring from the most surprising places.
William Edmondson was born free to former African American slaves on a plantation in Davidson County located outside Nashville.
With little education or opportunities in the Jim Crow South, Edmondson left the plantation taking jobs on the railroad, as a janitor, and as a stonemason’s assistant.
A Baptist convert at the age of 57, Edmondson felt compelled to use a mallet and chisels to create tombstones for his community.
Working with discarded limestone blocks from local buildings, Edmondson’s minimalist works retained an element of their original rectangular form.
This work, Rabbit, sits atop an integral rectangular base on its hind legs, paws raised.
With his simple, yet rough, carving and rotund forms, Edmondson was often compared to modernist sculptors, despite being self-taught.
Though his subject matter expanded into flower pots, bird baths, and biblical characters, Edmondson carved numerous iterations of the rabbit, more so than any other figure.
But why is the rabbit significant?
Throughout his career, Edmondson attributed his work to divine guidance, rejecting ideas of personal vision or artistry.
He was inspired by biblical stories and other images in the African American community. “Every piece of work … is a message … a sermon,” he explained.
The rabbit was likely inspired by African folktales, where the animal played the role of intelligent trickster.
This narrative went on to inspire the American stories of Br’er Rabbit, whom, Harlem Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps once called the “adopted hero of the American Negro slave.”
Though Edmonson’s work was relatively unknown outside his neighborhood, an unexpected “discovery” launched him briefly into the public eye when he became the first African American artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1937.
Unmoved by the experience and response, Edmondson continued his work in Nashville until his death in 1951.
In cruel irony, Edmondson was laid in an unmarked grave in Nashville’s Mount Ararat Cemetery.
