Visual Artist, Novelist and Poet Barbara Chase-Riboud

In celebration of Black History Month, throughout February I'm sharing with you three women artists who have made significant contributions to the art world:

• sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett
• painter Alma Woodsey Thomas
• artist, novelist and painter Barbara Chase-Riboud

This week I'm excited to introduce you to:

Visual Artist, Novelist and Poet Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud with Malcolm X Stele (USAToday)

Barbara Chase (b. 1939) was born in Philadelphia and at age 8 began attending the Fleisher Art Memorial School. In 1957 Chase-Riboud received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Temple University in 1957, studied at the American Academy in Rome, and received her Master's Degree in Design and Architecture from Yale University in 1960. Since 1961 Chase-Riboud has lived abroad in Paris, and spends extensive time traveling.

Starting out as a sculptor and painter, Chase-Riboud published her first novel Sally Hemings in 1979, and her novels and poetry have sold millions of copies and inspired a TV mini-series, plays and major films. Despite living all her adult life abroad, including marrying twice and raising two sons in France, most of Chase-Riboud's works focus on life in the United States.

Barbara Chase-Riboud The Malcolm X Steles

I don't write as a white or black woman; neither do I write about "white" or "black" characters. I write about human beings and the human condition, which is universal.

~ Barbara Chase-Riboud, 2010, Historical Novels 

Barbara Chase-Riboud's works include:

• Le Lit drawing series,1966
• 13 Malcolm X sculptures, begun in 1969
• Book of poetry From Memphis & Peking,1974
• Novel Sally Hemings, 1979
• Book of poetry Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra, 1987
• Novel Echo of Lions, 1989
• Roman Egyptien, poetry written in French, 1994
• Monument Drawings, 1996-97
• Sojourner Truth Monument, 1999

Barbara Chase-Riboud exhibits and honors include:

• solo exhibition was at the Galleria L'Obelisco at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy, 1957
• John Hay Whitney Fellowship, 1957
• Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best novel written by an American woman Sally Hemings, 1979
• Carl Sandburg Prize for Poetry 1988
• knighted by the French Government and received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1996 
• commissioned by the United States General Services Administration for the memorial Africa Rising, at the African Burial Ground National Monument NYC, 1979
• won an important copyright decision, Granville Burgess vs. Chase-Riboud, 1991
• honorary Doctorate of Letters from Muhlenberg College, 1993
• James Van Der Zee Award for lifetime achievement, 1995
• honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Connecticut, 1996
• American Library Association Black Caucus Award for fiction for her novel Hottentot Venus, 2005
• Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007
• Philadelphia Museum of Art presented Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Malcolm X Steles, 2013

Sojourner Truth by Barbara Chase-Riboud

For more works by Barbara Chase-Riboud

visit my Pinterest Board African American Female Artists

à la prochaine,

Shirley