In Honor Of Women’s History Month: The Contribution of Women Artists
I was invited to give the keynote address for a Women’s History Month program and I have included some excerpts of my talk entitled “Against All Odds: African American Women Artists Making History” for your educational enlightenment 
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The development of an American female identity is often associated with social, political, economic and even physical struggle. The same thing can be said for the development of an African-American identity. In this regard, emancipation should be seen as a process by which practices, laws and public opinion gradually reshape the dominant culture. Art can play a vital role in reshaping culture, and thus social and political change.
The emergence of heroic African American figures that gained widespread attention first appears in the 19th century associated with the Abolitionist movements. Although they were working in concert with White abolitionists, many Black leaders urged their fellow men and women to help themselves to freedom. For example, Harriet Tubman engineered a network of safe houses, raised necessary funding and developed a system of communication to help those escaping slavery make the arduous journey towards the freedom that Northern states promised. Sojourner Truth was born a slave and became a prominent an American Abolitionist and women’s rights activist born who in 1851 challenged the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention with her eloquent and heartfelt speech entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?” What is consistent in these examples and many others is that African-Americans and especially women lead their own struggle, as opposed to waiting for the beneficence of others.
In 1865 Mary Edmonia Lewis left for Italy, visiting Florence first and then settling in Rome to continue her studies where she was influenced by Greco-Roman sculpture. As was typical of artists during that period she modeled her work first out of clay or plaster in a small size. At that point most artists consigned the carving of larger scaled figures in marble to one of the ateliers that employed skilled stone carvers. Lewis, however, carved her work herself in order to prove her skill and to insure that there would be no doubt about her talent.
Forever Free(ca. 1867) was Lewis’ monument to the Emancipation Proclamation. It commemorates the ratification of the 13th Ammendment abolishing slavery. Lewis shows the now freed African American man raising his fist to the heavens after breaking free of the chains of slavery that bound him. Kneeling by his side is his female counterpart who clasps her hands as if praying and raises her eyes to heaven.
The Death Of Cleopatra (ca. 1875-76) won a distinguished prize at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876. However, Lewis herself could not enter the exhibition hall to collect the prize due to her race. Lewis was one of the first Afican American artists to employ themes of Egypt as symbolic of Africa and a pan-African identity.
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller showed artistic promise while attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and like many artists in her time decided to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. There she gained the rcognition and encouragement of Auguste Rodin and had works selected to exhibit in the Salons at the Louvre in 1904 and 1905.
Ethiopia Awakening(ca. 1914) is often viewed as an inspiration for the artists of Harlem Renaissance. It was commissioned by the NAACP for the first “America’s Making” Exhibition. Fuller conceived of the figure as a female mummy who is coming unbound from her stifling wrappings. She is wearing the headdress of an Egyptian pharoah as a symbol of her power, which is equivalent to that of any man.
Mary Turner, Silent Protest Against An Angry Mob (ca. 1917-1919) reveals the expressive handling of sculpture reminicent of Rodin’s later work. The subject was ripped from the ghastly headlines of lynchings and attacks on African Americans. Mary Turner’s husband had been lynched and when Turner threatened to call the Federal authorities an angry mob descended upon her. They dragged the pregnant Turner into the woods; hung her upside down; soaked her in gasoline and then set her on fire. While she burned to death, someone decided to cut her unborn baby from her womb and then stomp its life out on the ground. This is just one of a multitude of horror stories in the struggle for civil rights, but it’s one that Fuller did justice to in the exquisite sculpture. She has captured the sense of the expectant mother trying to protect her unborn child from the mob violence by sheltering her womb with her arms folded over her belly.
Augusta Fells Savage wouldn’t have had a career as an artist if her father had had anything to say about it. He was a Methodist minister who thought her modeling of small figures was pagan — taking Biblical verses about graven images to heart. But after winning a prize at a Florida State Fair she was encouraged and able to save money to head to Harlem where she felt she could get the artistic training and encouragement she needed.
After taking free classes at Cooper Union she applied for a scholarship to attend a summer program in France. Once the French government realized they had accepted an African American student, they expressed concern that the other students wouldn’t accept her and rescinded the offer. Savage didn’t go down without a fight and made the case public — creating something of an international incident — but the French government would not relent.
She continued to work hard and in 1929 her efforts paid off when Gamin, a sculpture of her nephew won her a Rosenwald Fellowship. She left for Paris that same year and studied there for about four years. By the time Savage returned to the States the Depression was in full swing. However, so was the WPA (Works Progress Administration) that provided work for artists in FAPs (Federal Arts Project). Savage secured several commissions and became the director of the Harlem Community Art Center as a result.
In 1939, Savage exhibited The Harp at the World’s Fair in New York. Based on the NAACP National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson, and his brother Rosamund, Savage’s harp is comprised of figures from an African American choir who open their mouths wide in joyful song.
Elizabeth Catlett received her Bachelor’s degree in printmaking at Howard University and her MFA in sculpture at the University of Iowa, where she studied with Grant Wood (the noted American Regionlist painter). Wood taught all his students to make work about what they knew; so for Catlett (the daughter of two school teachers) that meant subjects from African American History and specifically African American women.
In 1946, Catlett won a Rosenwald Fellowship which allowed her to study printmaking at the People’s Graphic Art Workshop in Mexico City. There she met Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siquieros who impressed upon her the role that art could play in shaping political and social change. She produced a series of 12 lithographs entitled “I Am The Black Woman” from which I Am Harriet Tubman, I Helped Hundreds To Freedom is taken.
By the 1960s Catlett was engaged in the Black Power movement and returned to sculpture producing Homage To My Young Black Sisters (ca. 1969). This work reflects Catlett’s interest in the Modernist sculptors like Brancusi and Modigliani and exploits the natural beauty of the material (in this case, Rosewood).
The valuable lesson learned from the history of African American women artists is that this very struggle in a world which didn’t encourage women of color, instilled incredible determination and a sense of purpose, and resulted is a rich artistic tradition that has received world acclaim. It only seems fitting to close with one of my favorite works by Elizabeth Catlett: There Is A Woman In Every Color (1974/2004)
Happy Women’s History Month!
