Abstract

In her sculpture series Water Boy, c. 1930, African American sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877–1968) responded to a Regionalist sentiment by celebrating a unique American subject. By depicting a young African American boy—alternately upright and bending under the weight of an earthen jug—Fuller evoked both a nostalgic and complicated view of rural Black childhood. Drawing upon her exposure to European art during her three-year period in Paris, she reinterpreted a figure type to reflect the African American experience and the legacy of slavery. Like many of her sculptures, Water Boy was inspired by a song, whose lyrics echo the plea for water in plantation fields. When first recorded in 1922, this song was also associated with African American prison chain gangs, further imbuing Fuller’s Water Boy with social and historical layers of meaning.

This paper seeks to expand the definition of Regionalism through artists, subjects, location, and medium in order to provide deeper context and understanding of the American Scene. For example, as a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance, Fuller inspired a future generation, such as Lois Mailou Jones, who in turn taught Elizabeth Catlett, a student of Grant Wood, thus creating a direct lineage to the movement. While the traditional triumvirate of Benton, Wood, and Curry addressed racial themes, their perspectives lacked Fuller’s lived experience of Black folk songs, oral histories, and cultural narratives. Although she resided outside Boston and not in the Midwest, Fuller was keenly aware of the social restraints in her community and beyond in the proverbial Heartland. And finally, by foregrounding her sculptural practice and related works such as Lazy Bones and Talking Skull, this study positions Fuller’s medium as a powerful tool to challenge and enrich the conventional scope of American Regionalism.

About the presenter

Erika Schneider, Ph.D. is Professor of Art History and Museum Studies Coordinator in the Art Department at Framingham State University outside Boston, MA. She has presented professionally both in the United States and internationally, as well as publishing in art history, literary, and history journals and books. Her current research investigates the international origins of the Harlem Renaissance and the role of race and gender in public monuments, specifically examining the legacy of African American sculptor, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Her 2022 article “Asserting Agency: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s Scrapbook,” in Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art marks the initiation of an inquiry into this subject. She also maintains an ongoing online catalogue raisonné dedicated to preserving Fuller's contributions to the art world.