Meta Warrick Fuller
Illustration inspired by Unknown photographer, Meta Warrick Fuller - Portrait of sculptor, circa 1910, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
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Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968) was an American artist who trained in Philadelphia and exhibited in Europe. She influenced both the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement with her sculpture, painting, theatrical design and poetry. She was the first Black woman artist to receive a federal commission from the U.S. government. Her signature series of sculptures includes Ethiopia (1910), where she explored African and Black heritage and identity.
Many of her works were tragically lost in a fire during her lifetime, but the Danforth Art Museum has the largest existing collection of her work.