Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller //
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, PMSIA Class of 1898
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, 1877-1968
© Photograph courtesy of Dr. John L. Fuller, Sr. Do not use without express permission of Dr. Fuller.
Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (PMSIA), Diploma and Teacher's Certificate, School of Applied Art 1898.
Honorable Mention, Mrs. George K. Crozer Prize, for the best work in modelling [sculpture] 1898.
Received an award for an additional year of study for 1898/99.
Mrs. George K. Crozer Prize, $20.00, for the best work in modelling [sculpture] 1899.
Mr. H. H. Battles First Prize, $25.00, for a jardiniere, 1904.
Mentioned in the June 1914 "Newsletter of the Alumni Association of the Pennsylvania Museum & School of Industrial Art", p. 29: "Mrs. Meta Vaux Warrick-Fuller, one of our active members, exhibited at the Exposition held by the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission in October 1913, a group eight feet high representing a newly emancipated man and maiden, standing in the shelter of a decapitated tree that has the semblance of a human hand stretched above them. This hand represents humanity which is pushing them out into the untried work [sic - world?]. Mrs. Fuller has just had an exhibition of her work at South Framingham, Mass."
Caption reads "Pottery Jardiniere. The H. H. Battles First Prize. Designed and Modelled by Meta Vaux Warrick, A Pupil of the School." Source: Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. Annual Report for the Year Ending May 31, 1904, page 38. 1903-04 was the first year that pottery/ceramics was officially offered as a program, with Leon Volkmar as pottery instructor.
© University of the Arts • University Libraries • University Archives. Do not use without permission.
Ethiopia Awakening, c. 1921, by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Bronze, 67x16x10". Used with permission from Art and Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox and Tilden Foundations. Do not use without permission.
© Photograph courtesy of Dr. John L. Fuller, Sr. Do not use without express permission of Dr. Fuller.
Meta is pronounced "mee-tah", according to Fuller's grandson, Dr. John L. Fuller, Sr. Best known for her sculpture, in particular the 1921 Ethiopia Awakening (owned by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library), and the 1919 In Memory of Mary Turner: As a Silent Protest Against Mob Violence (Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket), Fuller was an accomplished fine artist who also did a great deal of stage design (see Kathy A. Perkins' article in the bibliography below) in the Boston area and in Framingham, Massachusetts, where she lived after her marriage in 1909 to Dr. Solomon Fuller.
She seems to have always been interested in learning: after receiving her Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (PMSIA) diploma in 1898, she stayed on for another year and received the Mrs. George K. Crozer Prize of $20.00 for the best work in modelling [sculpture] in 1899. Upon her return to Philadelphia from her studies in Paris, where she had studied at the Academie Colarossi and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and met Henry Ossawa Tanner and Auguste Rodin, she enrolled at PMSIA again to study in the new pottery classes, offered for the first time in December 1903 "under the direction of Mr. Leon Volkmar" (PMSIA Annual Report for 1904, page 36) and won the 1904 Battles Prize for the jardiniere shown above. She also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia around that time. According to Perkins' article listed below, Fuller also took courses in religious pageantry and theatrical lighting (Perkins, page 70).
For more information about Warrick Fuller consult the following selected sources:
The Danforth Art Museum in Framingham, MA (Fuller lived for many years in Framingham), has a large collection of Fuller's work. Please see The Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Special Collection.
The Framingham History Center maintains information on Warrick Fuller: http://biographies.framinghamhistory.org/2020/05/21/meta-warrick-fuller/
An Independent Woman: The Life and Art of Meta Warrick Fuller (1877-1968). Framingham, MA : Danforth Museum of Art, [1984]
UArts Greenfield Library NB 237 .F855 A4 1984
Armstrong, Julie Buckner. "'The people…took exception to her remarks': Meta Warrick Fuller, Angelina Weld Grimké, and the Lynching of Mary Turner." Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 62, issue 1/2, Winter2008/Spring2009, pp. 113-141. UArts on-campus link to article
Ater, Renée. "Making History: Meta Warrick Fuller's Ethiopia". American Art, v. 17, no. 3, Fall 2003, pp. 12-31. UArts on-campus link to article
An in-depth look at the historical context in which Fuller's iconic piece was made. 35 bibliographic notes.
Ater, Renée. Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller. University of California Press, 2011.
UArts Greenfield Library NB 237 .F85 A88 2011
Boime, Albert. The Art of Exclusion: Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
UArts Greenfield Library N 8232 .B57 1990
Bearden, Romare and Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present. New York : Pantheon Books, c1993.
UArts Greenfield Library N 6538 .N5 B38 1993
Mentions Fuller as an influence on Augusta Savage and Fuller's relationship with Lois Jones.
Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. Studio Museum in Harlem : Abradale Press, 1994.
UArts Greenfield Library N 6538 .N5 H286 1994
Good reproductions of "Man Eating His Heart Out", "Ethiopia Awakening", "Talking Skull", "Mother and Child" and more.
Perkins, Kathy A. "The Genius of Meta Warrick Fuller." Black American Literature Forum, v. 24, no. 1 (Spring 1990), p. 65-72.
Focuses on Warrick Fuller's theater design activities.
Porter, James A. Modern Negro Art. With a new introduction by David C. Driskell. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1992. Originally published: New York : Dryden Press, 1943.
UArts Greenfield Library N 6538 .N5 P6 1992
Reprint of a book originally written in 1943. Includes the introductions for the 1943, 1969 and 1992 editions. Interesting for its 1943 point of view.
Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. University of California Press, 1997.
UArts Greenfield Library N 6538 .N5 R56 1997
St. James Guide to Black Artists / Thomas Riggs, editor ; with a preface by Howard Dodson. Detroit, MI : St. James Press, c1997. Published in association with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
UArts Greenfield Library REF N 40 .S78 1997
3 Generations of African American Women Sculptors: A Study in Paradox. Philadelphia: Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, 1996.
UArts Greenfield Library NB 238 .N5 A13 1996
250 Years of Afro-American Art : An Annotated Bibliography / Lynn Moody Igoe with James Igoe. New York : Bowker, 1981.
UArts Greenfield Library REF Z 5956 .A47 I38
This is a highly recommended source for finding books and articles from a wide range of publications, including The Crisis, Journal of Negro Education, Journal of Negro History, Negro History Bulletin, and a variety of newspapers.
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