The Role of Female African American Sculptors in the Harlem Renaissance

The Role of Female African American Sculptors in the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, a time of global appreciation for the black culture, was a door opening for African American women. Until then, African Americans, let alone African American women, were neither respected nor recognized in the artistic world. During this time of this New Negro Movement, women sculptors were able to connect their heritages with the present issues in America. There is an abundance of culture and history to be learned from these sculptures because the artists creatively intertwine both. Meta Warrick Fuller and Edmonia Lewis, two of the most popular sculptors of this time, were able to reflect their native heritages and the dynamics of society through their artwork.

Meta Warrick Fuller and Edmonia Lewis were two of the most renowned women sculptors during this time. Fuller and Lewis’ pieces showed how they connected with the social happenings of the time as well as portraying their African roots. Often their subjects were chosen to serve as a political mission or statement as to their feelings of societal issues. Often their subjects were chosen to serve as a political mission or statement as to their feelings of societal issues. Their sculptures support the idea that these women were products of living within a contact zone.

As artists began to gain recognition in the artistic world, they continually represented what it meant to be black in America. Personalities and individualism were displayed through their work while simultaneously portraying the political, social, and economic conditions of being black. This idea runs parallel with Mary Louise Pratt’s (1990) definition of a contact zone. She defines it as a "term to refer...

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...central rather than peripheral in the forging of a more liberating and intelligent visual culture in the United States" (p. 37).

Works Cited

Jackson, P. (1992). (in)Forming the Visual: (re)Presenting Women of African Descent. International Review of African American Art. 14 (3), 31-7.

Kleeblatt, N. (1998). Master Narratives/Minority Artists. Art Journal, 57 (3), 29.

Powell, R. (1998). Art of the Harlem Renaissance. American Art Review, 10 (2), 132-137.

Pratt, M. (1990). Arts of the Contact Zone.

Richardson, M. (1995). Edmonia Lewis’ The Death of Cleopatra Myth and Identity. African American Art. 12(2), 36-52

Savannah, G. (1998). African American Women Sculptors. American Art Review, 10, 162-5.

Scwartz, B. (1997). African-Americans in the Visual Arts: A Historical Perspective.

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