Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968) is celebrated for being the first American black artist to reflect African themes and folk tales in her work and for being ahead of her time in her understanding of the black experience. Fuller's career spanned over seventy years. Her sculptural works in bronze, clay, and plaster represented her comments on wartime America, racism and violence, and the African American perspective. As a young woman studying in Paris, she was encouraged by French artist Auguste Rodin and W.E.B. DuBois.

Encouraged as a Young Artist

William H. Warrick, Jr., was a master barber, and his wife, Emma (Jones) Warrick, was a hairdresser and wigmaker. Their fourth child, Meta Vaux Warrick, was born June 9, 1877, in a middle-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was ten years younger than her brother William and sister Blanche. Another sister, Virginia, died before Fuller was born.

As early...