Edmonia Lewis Was the Earliest Known Black Artist to Depict Emancipation. This Is Her First Retrospective.
ARTnews reports that “Said in Stone,” at the Peabody Essex Museum, is the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to late 19th-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a Black and Indigenous artist. The exhibition brings together her sculptures to reassess her career and includes “Forever Free” (1867), described as the earliest known formal visual depiction of emancipation by a Black American artist. Other highlighted works include “Indian Combat” (1868) and “Hiawatha” (1868), presented as part of a broader view of Lewis’s historical subjects and artistic ambitions. The article also recounts key biographical details, including Lewis’s time at Oberlin College and the violence she faced after being wrongfully accused of poisoning classmates.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in New Museums, Old Wounds: Restitution and Rehangs