Steve R. Allen’s artwork has appeared in eight Olympic games, including the 1996 competition in Atlanta in which he was the official artist. His work will soon grace the walls of the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.
Center officials announced Wednesday a prized collection of artwork will be on display there. The collection will include “The Legend,” commemorating the 25th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s 715th record-breaking home run. Two original portraits, “Dr. Richard Long” and “Patrice Emery Lumumba,” which have been on loan to the AUC Woodruff Library since 2019, are also part of the gift.
Allen was commissioned to create “Uniting Colors of the World”, a mammoth eighty feet by twenty-eight feet mural, as the city of Atlanta’s official commemoration of its hosting the 1996 Centennial Olympic Summer Games.
A special recognition of Allen and his work will be planned for next year, officials said. Allen’s art will also be digitally accessible through the Library’s e-scholarship repository and the GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning portal.