Edmonia Lewis (1843-1911) was one of America's pre-eminent sculptors during Reconstruction, and her neoclassical masterpiece "The Death of Cleopatra" was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876. It survives to this day only because a racetrack owner bought it to use as a tombstone for one of his favorite steeds.
In 1972, a fireman, taken by its beauty as it stood in a machine yard in a Chicago suburb covered with grime, lobbied for its restoration. Finally, in 1987, more than a century after its creation, conservators discovered it was Lewis' lost "Cleopatra." Black women artists, argues Lisa Farrington in her new book, "Creating Their Own Image,'' have never had it easy, and they are still struggling for acknowledgement and representation. [...]
| Continue the rest of "Art in black women's hands," Dodie Bellamy's San Francisco Chronicle book review of Lisa E. Farrington's "Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists"
posted in articles on February 26, 2005 11:18 PM | t (0)
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