In celebration of Black History Month, we’re proud to highlight the work of African American a
In celebration of Black History Month, we’re proud to highlight the work of African American artist Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, a tragic figure of immense talent. Her legacy rests on a small handful of works created in Paris from the late twenties through the early thirties, when she endured poverty and hunger in order to pursue her artistic calling. While she is known to have completed about two dozen works between 1925 and 1931, fewer than ten of these are located today.Despite her parents’ disapproval, she enrolled in the worked as a housekeeper after completing her public school education, but did so only to pay her tuition at the Rhode Island School of Design. After a regrettable marriage and little success attempting to establish herself as a portraitist, she fled to Paris in 1921 or 1922. Almost from the moment of her arrival in Paris, Prophet began a desperate struggle to work through years of financial want, and periods of profound depression and mania. By the late twenties, Prophet was producing powerful heads carved in hardwood. This powerful work shows Prophet’s inclination to treat distinctive features with an idealizing hand, and to find expressive force in the description of weighty introspection. Prophet’s carving here is masterful, and the presence of the work, overall, is distinguished by a quiet gravitas.Posted by Kimberly OrcuttNancy Elizabeth Prophet (American, 1890-1960). Untitled (Head), ca. 1930. Wood, head without base. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Saundra Williams-Cornwell, 2014.3 -- source link
#blackhistorymonth#bkmamericanart#tragiv#talent#poverty#hunger#artistic#art#art history#bhm#sculpture#head#carving#masterful#highlight