In the Studio
The Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Collection
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877–1968), an American sculptor, is known for her groundbreaking depictions of the African and African-American experience. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, she created intimate portraits of friends and family, self-portraits, and commissioned works for national and international expositions. Anticipating themes of the Harlem Renaissance, Fuller used the figure as metaphor to represent broad themes as African-American artists and intelligentsia sought to formulate and celebrate an African-American cultural identity and express racial experience and social issues in America. Works such as the Study for Ethiopia Awakening and Study for the Spirit of Emancipation (both in the collection of the Danforth Art Museum) celebrate African heritage while expressing aspirations for the future.
The Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Special Collection consists of ephemera, process pieces, studies, and other objects that expand upon some of the better-known aspects of Fuller’s sculptural work. The entire collection is on view in this gallery in open storage and in a re-creation of Fuller’s first studio in Framingham, which was in the attic of her home (c. 1920). The collection spans seventy years of creative output from Fuller’s early works in Paris, to her role as a precursor to and in the Harlem Renaissance, to her late works celebrating members of the African-American intelligentsia. The Danforth Art Museum is committed to the stewardship, exploration, and exhibition of this important collection, which will be continually on view at the Museum.
Check out this recent article in Magazine Antiques about Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, utilizing a number of images from the Danforth’s collection of her works. Meta and her studio collection were also featured in Chronicle, which can be watched here!
Waterboy I , 1930, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.337
Lazy Bones II , 1933, Plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.335
Bust of a Young Boy (Solomon Fuller, Jr.) , 1914, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.313
Danse Macabre , 1914, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.312
Mold for Crusaders for Freedom , 1962, Plaster with mold release agent
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.310
Te Adoremus Domine , 1921, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.282
Storytime , 1961, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.355
Reverie , n.d., Plasticene
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.389
Self-Portrait , n.d., Unfired Clay
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.321
Maquette for Ethiopia Awakening , 1921, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.331
Secret Sorrow (Mother and Child) , c. 1914, Bronze
Gift of Mrs. Robert MacPherson, 1975.16
Mold for Phillis Wheatley , n.d., Resin mold
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.176
Mold of Sanctus , c. 1965, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.269
Mother and Child , Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.262
Negro Poet (Portrait of Maxwell Nicy Hayson) , c. 1920s, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.342
Maquette for Spirit of Emancipation , c. 1913 , Plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.311
Boy Scout , Plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.412
Immigrant in America , 1915, Plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.319
Menelik II in Profile , 1914, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V.W. Fuller Trust, 2006.225
Model for Union Hospital , 1961, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.215
Samuel Coleridge Taylor , 1914, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.153
Victory Figure , Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006. 329
Woman Leaning on Wall , c. 1955, Painted plaster
Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2006.390
“The Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University is home to the largest collection of work and ephemera by the twentieth-century sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. the Danforth—Plan Your Visit