Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907) broke more ground than most artists. She was the first Black sculptor, and the first sculptor of Native American heritage, to achieve widespread acclaim in the United States and abroad. Forever Free (1867) – in which two figures, one standing and one kneeling, bear broken shackles – was the first sculpture by a Black artist to celebrate emancipation. Although in her lifetime she was highly regarded by the likes of Frederick Douglass, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Pope Pius IX, she slipped into obscurity towards the end of her life. This exhibition, which has travelled from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, demonstrates how an orphaned girl once nicknamed ‘Wildfire’ for her headstrong temperament established a firm foothold in the 19th-century art market, and makes a case for the enduring power of her work (8 August–3 January 2027).
Find out more from the Georgia Museum of Art’s website.
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