User:Remando/Reuben Aldridge Hale, Jr

Reuben Aldridge Hale, Jr. (June 27, 1927 in Belzoni, MS - March 23, 2018, in West Palm Beach, FL) was an American artist, educator, and cultural leader. He is best known for his figurative sculptures, and for elevating the humanities department at Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth Beach, FL.

His belief that "the changing status of the female in society now and in the future would be one of the most significant changes of our time," was explored in much of his work.

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Early life
Hale's parents met in downtown Oxford, MS where both were working while attending Ole Miss – Reuben Aldridge Hale, Sr. as a pharmacist, and Sallie Irma Harris in a jewelry store, and married in 1920. Their first child, Emma Elizabeth Hale was born in 1921, and Reuben Aldridge Hale, Jr. was born June 29, 1927 in Belzoni, MS, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. The Yazoo River town had been flooded from a second rise of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, so the doctor traveled by boat to attend to the birth.

The family moved briefly to Lexington, MS and then Greenwood, MS in 1935.

Significant teachers and art studies
As a second-grader in Greenwood, one of his drawings placed first in an art exhibit, winning him a college scholarship at age seven or eight. “I couldn’t go when they found out how old I was,” he said in a 2006 interview. “But I won." Hale's earliest art teacher was Lalla Walker Lewis in Greenwood, MS.

Upon returning home from the Navy, he attended the University of Mississippi for one year. Deciding to focus his studies on art, he briefly attended the School of Art in Memphis, TN, until he was accepted to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He completed four years there including some graduate courses.

Hale's plan was to complete graduate studies at SAIC. But Hale was recruited by Warren Brandt to transfer to Southern Illinois University Carbondale and complete his Master's degree in one year.

Significant teachers over the years included __ __ __ and __.

The School of Ballet and Art
Studio teacher and community leadership.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Hale began teaching at the university level while at SIUC.

Palm Beach Junior College
Hale accepted a teaching job in Florida at ___ but it was a new school and their opening was going to be delayed. In the interim, Palm Beach Junior College in Lake Worth, FL invited him to be their third art instructor.

Artwork
In his early professional work, Hale was a prolific portrait and landscape artist. His later output included abstract expressionist paintings, figurative sculpture and multimedia pieces, incorporating materials such as glass, lead, and holographs. He often sculpted maquettes in polyester resin before casting them in bronze.

Style
Hale's signature form is an emerging figure.

Exhibition highlights

 * Regional art show, Museum of Fine Arts of MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Harris K. Pryor (director of the American Federation of Arts), exhibit  jury chairman (1958)
 * Nine Palm Beach County Artists, multi-media exhibit, North Miami Museum and Art Center  (1985)
 * Reuben Hale: A Retrospective, Museum of the Mississippi Delta, Greenwood, MS (14 Jan-2 Apr 2022)