Meta Warrick Fuller (1877-1968)

SANCTUS SANCTUS SANCTUS, DOMINUS DEUS SABAOTH

(HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD OF HOSTS)

1960-1965
painted and incised plaster
11 inches diameter
incised "III" verso

Born in Philadelphia, and educated in public schools, she and May Howard Jackson (born the same year, also in Philadelphia) were selected to attend the J. Liberty Tadd Art School in the early 1890s.  Both women went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (May Howard a few years earlier).  In 1899, Meta was given the opportunity to study abroad; she encouraged May to join her, but May declined.  Warrick left to study drawing at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts and sculpture at the Colarossi Academy.  In 1901, she was granted an interview with renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin.  He was unable to take on new students, but he felt she had great promise, and she continued to work with him informally.  W.E.B. Dubois enlisted her to work on the “Negro Exhibit” at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, and her work was included in the 1903 Paris Salon.

Meta returned to Philadelphia and married Solomon Fuller in 1909.  Fuller was the first person of African descent to practice psychiatry in the United States.  Meta was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. Government commission in 1907, when asked to create a set of tableaux for the Negro Pavilion at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition.   She was also commissioned to create a sculpture marking the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Her work addressed portraiture, religion, allegory, and African American themes.  She exhibited at the PAFA, Boston Library, Dunbar High School (Washington DC), and Howard University. (1)

Fuller also exhibited at Art Institute of Chicago (1927); Emancipation Exhibit (Harmon Foundation), New York, (1931); Augusta Savage Studios, New York (1939); American Negro Exhibition, Chicago (1940); and Howard University in 1961.

Her work Ethiopia (later renamed The Awakening of Ethiopia) was considered a pioneering work of the Harlem Renaissance when scholars dated it to 1914-1917. However, some later disagreement has suggested that it was done in 1921, in response to James Weldon Johnson’s request for a work for New York’s Making of America Festival.

Fuller’s body of work is primarily made up of painted plaster sculptures and plaques.  It was considered especially difficult for an African American woman to work in sculpture, as opposed to painting, due to the cost of materials and the physicality of using the medium.

1. Benjamin, Tritobia Hayes, et al. “May Howard Jackson Meta Warrick Fuller: Philadelphia Trailblazers.” 3 Generations of African American Women Sculptors: A Study in Paradox, Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, Philadelphia, 1996, pp. 18–21.

The Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Special Collection

The Danforth Art Museum in Framingham, MA, houses a permanent exhibition of Fuller’s work.

You will find links to an article and video featuring the work of Fuller on their website.  There are variations to both pieces included in the auction found in their permanent collection.