At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris drew young American artists with the promise of training unavailable at home. For African American artists, it also promised an escape from the racism that governed their professional lives in the United States, though that promise was not always kept.
In this episode, art historian Renée Ater discusses Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's three formative years in Paris, from her arrival in 1899 and the discrimination she faced at the American Girls' Art Club, to her training under sculptors including Jean-Antonin Carlès, her encounter with Rodin's work at the 1900 Universal Exposition, and the recognition she earned at Siegfried Bing's L'Art Nouveau gallery in 1902. Ater draws on her dissertation and her 2010 monograph, Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller, as well as her ongoing digital archive at slaverymonuments.org, to trace how works like Silent Sorrow and The Wretched reflect Fuller's absorption of Rodin's expressive modeling and her own deepening engagement with themes of human suffering.
This special series of Atelier was produced in conjunction with a three-day symposium dedicated to celebrating the work and life of Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Across these conversations, we bring together scholars, curators, and other special guests to revisit her legacy and situate it within its historical moment.
The symposium and podcast series were made possible with support from the Columbia Global Paris Center and the Terra Foundation for American Art, and with the participation of the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University.
Website - globalcenters.columbia.edu/paris
Newsletter - globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/paris-newsletters
Instagram - instagram.com/cgcparis
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/cgcparis
YouTube - youtube.com/@CGCParis
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema, Tessa Overvoorde, and Anthony Valette
Editing: Theo Albaric
Music: Robert Schumann’s Rêverie performed by Magdalena Stern-Baczewska
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.