In this episode, Kellie Jones, Hans Hoffman Professor of Modern Art at Columbia University and MacArthur Fellow, and Heather Nickels, independent curator and doctoral candidate at Columbia, discuss Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's place within African American art history, the structural conditions that shaped her access to sculpture as a medium, and what was lost — in practice and in the historical record — when her stored works were destroyed by fire in 1910.
Drawing comparisons with Edmonia Lewis and Augusta Savage, they examine how class, gender, colorism, and the lack of a comprehensive catalogue raisonné have all affected Fuller's canonization. They also reflect on what Paris offered her — both artistic freedom and distance from the gendered expectations she would return to — and on the ongoing work needed to bring her work into the permanent collections of encyclopedic institutions, whether in New England, in Philadelphia, or beyond.
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.
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