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Within the field of American sculpture, barriers have historically inhibited women’s participation and achievement. The very act of shaping durable substance into aesthetic form is a physically demanding practice—one that …

The daughter of a prosperous coal baron, Catherine Wiley enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1895, just four years after women became eligible for admission. After two years studying …

An artist who did not receive professional recognition until her fifties, Helen Turner overcame personal setbacks to become the fourth female and first Louisianan to achieve the rank of full …

The first African American woman artist to receive a solo exhibition at a major national arts institution—the Whitney Museum of American Art—Alma Thomas only began to seriously paint after she …

Little about Gladys Nelson’s childhood on a Kansas farm foreshadowed her eventual professional success in the sophisticated art circles of greater Washington, DC. Following studies at the Art Institute of …

For most of her professional career, Dixie Selden divided her year seasonally: winters painting formal portraits in Cincinnati, summers executing impressionistic outdoor scenes. This duality mirrors her art training. Her …

A leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage’s legacy is as inextricably tied to her role as an instructor and mentor to important African American artists of the postwar …

“It’s a very personal thing when you’re painting,” Hattie Saussy once observed. “When you’re an artist you have to get very silent with what you’re doing. . . . If …

A stalwart advocate of the arts in Richmond, Virginia, Theresa Pollak was as celebrated as a painter as she was as an educator. Born there to Hungarian immigrants, Pollak’s life …

During a decade spent in France, Willie Betty Newman attended the Académie Julian, traveled the rural regions seeking inspiration, and successfully submitted paintings to the prestigious Paris Salon. With its …