Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller ( ; born Meta Vaux Warrick; June 9, 1877 – March 18, 1968) was an African-American artist who celebrated Afrocentric themes. At the fore of the Harlem Renaissance, Warrick was known for being a poet, painter, theater designer, and sculptor of the black American experience. At the turn of the 20th century, she achieved a reputation as the first black woman sculptor and was a well-known sculptor in Paris before returning to the United States."Negro Girl Wins Fame Is The Only Sculptress Of The Colored Race. Meta Vaux Warrick." Wichita Searchlight (Wichita, Kansas), November 8, 1902: 1. Readex: African American Newspapers. Warrick was a protégée of Auguste Rodin, and has been described as "one of the most imaginative Black artists of her generation." The editors compare Warrick with her contemporary, May Howard Jackson, another African-American sculptor from Philadelphia, who was also born in 1877. Through adopting a horror-based figural style and choosing to depict events of racial injustice, like the lynching of Mary Turner, Warrick used her platform to address the societal traumas of African Americans.
