February 2: Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud was born on June 26, 1939 in Philly. From an early age, her natural talent afforded many impactful experiences that shaped the artist she is today.

As a young student, she was frequently highlighted as top-performing, even graduating at the top of her class in high school. When she was 8, one of her original poems was so good that one of her teachers thought she copied it!

In 1955, while enrolled at Temple University, she sold her first piece of art to the Museum of Modern Art – a wooded piece named, “Reba.” And she made it when she was just 15 years old but was able to sell while in undergrad.

Also while at Temple, she received the John Hay Whitney fellowship which included a yearlong visit to Rome to study art. Barbara notes this trip as informing so much of the art she makes today. It was her first visit overseas and her first visit to Africa, including a stop in Egypt, and discovering a love for the unique art she encountered there.

Barbara first shared her large-scale, bronzed art while in Rome. And in 1957, she sold her first bronze art piece. The use of bronze became a staple in her sculptural works, with Barbara emphasizing the historical universality of the material as a major appeal.

Barbara first shared her large-scale, bronzed art while in Rome. And in 1957, she sold her first bronze art piece. The use of bronze became a staple in her sculptural works, with Barbara emphasizing the historical universality of the material as a major appeal.

Barbara came on back to the US to graduate from Yale in 1960 with a Masters in Fine Arts. She was one of only few Black graduate students on campus at the time and the first Black woman to graduate from Yale with a MFA degree.

“There were three Black women in the grad school at Yale in ’57. One in philosophy, one in law and then there was me,” she recalled recently. “But I just ignored it,” she continued. “I had other things to do. I had already gotten a Whitney. I got engaged at

the time [to the French photographer Marc Riboud]. And of course, I had already been at the academy in Rome, which was the same situation: It was all male.”

Europe overall has been really good to Barbara. She had her first solo exhibition in Italy, her first museum exhibition in MOMA Paris, and first solo gallery show in Paris too! Barbara continued to gain recognition in the United States, though. In the 60s and 70s, She worked on a public commission fountain sculpture for Wheaton, Maryland and had an exhibit in the Whitney Museum of American Art. Whew!

But Barbara is a writer too, honey!

Barbara's most well-known written work may be her novel, “Sally Hemings,” published in 1979 . Yup, that Sally Hemings. She caused a lot of drama because people were still denying the true nature of Sally Hemming’s relationship with Jefferson at the time. But we now know their relationship is now solidified as historical fact.

And the book won a Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best novel by an American woman!

But she also wrote a book of poetry - edited by Toni Morrison, no less. Many of her written works explore the experiences of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black Americans. She has been published more than 10 times and has solidified herself as writer, poet, and novelist.

She also successfully sued Dreamworks for their movie Amistad for being heavily based on one her novels, “Echo of Lions,” and not being properly credited.

Back to her art…

Four years after the assassination of Malcolm X, Barbara began working on a 20-piece collection in celebration of the civil rights icon. She applied her influences from the tombs of Egypt to craft tall, domineering sculptures inspired by the art she experienced there. She completed the multi-piece collection in 2008.

She was also picked as one of a select group of artists to create a piece to be featured in the Ted Weiss Federal Office Building in Lower Manhattan as part of their African Burial Ground National Monument. That's an interesting story worth a quick internet search too.

Her art is featured in private and public collections across the globe - including art at the MoMA, the Whitney, and the Met here in the US.

At 83, a retrospective of 40+ years of her art is currently on display at the Pulitzer Art Foundation Museum in St. Louis through February 5, 2023 AND another is displayed at London’s Serpentine North Gallery through April 2023.

“One makes art in order to create beauty; there’s no other reason. Any other reason is really self-indulgent, as far as I’m concerned.”

Barbara is currently living in Paris with her second husband, Sergio Tosi. She also had two sons with her first husband, photographer Marc Ribboud. She's recently published her memoir, "I Always Knew: A Memoir."

And in October 2021, the NYT published a beautiful feature celebrating her work, including a lovely Q&A. Read the full article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/t-magazine/barbara-chase-riboud.html