On View
Visual Arts Gallery
Exhibition
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
Created by
Fuller, Meta Vaux Warrick, American, 1877 - 1968
Date
ca. 1921
Medium
paint on plaster
Dimensions
13 × 3 1/2 × 3 7/8 in. (33 × 8.9 × 9.8 cm)
Caption
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s Ethiopia is widely considered the first Pan-Africanist artwork created in the United States. It provides a visual embodiment of the New Negro Movement—an era during the 1920s characterized by an increased recognition of artistic and cultural production by Black people, and a consciousness of racial heritage and pride.
W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson commissioned Fuller to create Ethiopia for the Negro Exhibit in the America’s Making Exposition. An image of the sculpture graced the cover of the exhibit’s publication describing it as, “A Symbolic Statue of the EMANCIPATION of the NEGRO RACE.” Fuller’s work links the cultural achievements of ancient Egypt as well as the Ethiopian resistance to colonial rule to a narrative of African American struggle and achievement, using the past to guide and critique the present.
Description
Painted plaster sculpture of a female figure standing with her right hand over her heart, her left arm straight against her side with her hand extended out. Her head is turned over her left shoulder. From the hips down her legs are bound as if mummified. She wears a veil that is draped over her head and falls over her shoulders and down her back. The veil is shaped to resemble a pharaonic headdress. The figure stands on a rectangular, slightly wedge shaped pedestal. The sculpture is painted to look like copper complete with a simulated greenish patina.
Cultural Place
Ethiopia, Africa
Classification
Visual Arts
Movement
Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)
Pan Africanism
Type
sculpture
Topic
African diaspora
Art
Women
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Fuller Family
Object number
2013.242.1
Restrictions & Rights
© Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5cf9b5950-e9b5-493e-92e3-6c08c12c2d4e

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

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