Barbara Chase-Riboud facts for kids

Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is a talented American and French artist, sculptor, novelist, and poet. She is known for her amazing sculptures and her powerful books.

One of her most famous achievements is her novel Sally Hemings, published in 1979. This book became a huge success around the world. It also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction.

Chase-Riboud's novel about Sally Hemings started important discussions. It explored the likely relationship between Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman, and Thomas Jefferson, who became a U.S. president. At first, some historians did not agree with her story. However, after DNA analysis in 1998, most historians now accept that the relationship happened.

From September 2024 to January 2025, a special art show called Barbara Chase-Riboud: Everytime A Knot is Undone, A God is Released took place in Paris, France. It showed her sculptures, drawings, and poems from 1958 until today. This was the first time a living artist had such a big show across eight major museums in Paris.

Early Life and Education

Barbara Chase was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the only child of Vivian May Chase and Charles Edward Chase. Barbara showed a strong talent for art from a young age. She started attending the Fleisher Art Memorial School when she was eight.

She went to Philadelphia High School for Girls from 1948 to 1952. She graduated with top honors. She then continued her art studies at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art.

In 1956, Barbara earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She also won a special fellowship to study at the American Academy in Rome for a year. There, she created her first bronze sculptures. She also traveled to Egypt, where she discovered many different kinds of art.

In 1960, Barbara earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University. She was the first African-American woman to receive this degree from Yale. After finishing her studies, she moved to London, England, and then to Paris, France.

Her Amazing Career

Barbara Chase-Riboud is a highly respected sculptor, poet, and novelist. She has worked with many different art forms throughout her long career.

Visual Arts and Sculpture

At Temple University's Tyler School of Art, she learned about sculpture, painting, and design. She also studied how the human body is put together.

Chase-Riboud's modern sculptures often mix strong metals like bronze and aluminum with soft materials like silk. She uses a special method called "lost wax casting." This involves shaping wax, then pouring hot metal into the mold. The metal takes the shape of the wax. She then adds fabric threads, tying them into knots and cords. These often form the base for the metal parts of her sculptures.

In 1955, her woodcut artwork called Reba was shown in a gallery. The Museum of Modern Art later bought this piece.

Her first solo art show was in Italy in 1957. Her first museum show in Europe was in Paris in 1961.

In 1960, she completed her first public art project. It was a fountain in Wheaton, Maryland. This fountain used aluminum and abstract shapes. It also had sound and light effects to make the falling water look even more special.

In the late 1960s, Chase-Riboud's sculptures started getting a lot of attention. Her works were described as "startling, ten-foot-tall sculptures." They combined powerful bronze shapes with soft ropes made of silk and wool.

Chase-Riboud was one of the first African-American women to show her art at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This happened after protests by artists who wanted more recognition for Black women artists.

In 1996, she was asked to create artwork for the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan. Her 18-foot bronze memorial, Africa Rising, was put in place in 1998. She also wrote a poem with the same name.

La Musica Red Parkway / Josephine Red (2007) at Glenstone in 2023

She continues to create sculptures and drawings. Her works are shown and collected by major museums. These include the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From September 2013 to January 2014, the Philadelphia Museum of Art held a show of her work. It was called Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Malcolm X Steles.

As mentioned, a huge exhibition of her work took place in Paris from September 2024 to January 2025. It was called Barbara Chase-Riboud: Everytime A Knot Is Undone, A God Is Released. This show was spread across eight different museums in Paris. It was a very rare event for a living artist.

Literary Career

Chase-Riboud has received many awards for her writing. These include the Carl Sandburg Prize for poetry. In 1996, the French Government honored her with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

She became famous worldwide with her first novel, Sally Hemings, published in 1979. This book was the first detailed story imagining the life of Sally Hemings. It explored her life as an enslaved person and her long-rumored relationship with President Thomas Jefferson. The book caused a lot of discussion. It won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best novel by an American woman. Sally Hemings sold over one million copies.

Chase-Riboud started her writing career as a poet. Her first poetry book, Memphis & Peking, was published in 1974. Her latest collection, Everytime a Knot Is Undone, a God Is Released: Collected and New Poems 1974–2011, came out in 2014.

She has continued to write novels about the history of enslaved African people. Her novel Valide: A Novel of the Harem (1986) looked at slavery in the Ottoman empire. Her book Echo of Lions (1989) was one of the first serious novels about the historic Amistad slave ship revolt of 1839. Hottentot Venus: A Novel (2003) tells the story of Sarah Baartman. She was a Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited in shows in 19th-century Europe.

In 1994, Chase-Riboud published The President's Daughter. This book continued the story of Sally Hemings. It imagined the life of Harriet Hemings, the daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Harriet, like some of her siblings, chose to live as a white person in society.

Sally Hemings: A Novel

In 1979, Chase-Riboud's novel Sally Hemings became very popular. It was based on the life of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved person, Sally Hemings. She was also the half-sister of Jefferson's late wife. Chase-Riboud believed that Thomas Jefferson had six children with Hemings.

Chase-Riboud was the first writer to create a full, fictional character of Sally Hemings. She gave Sally Hemings a voice and a rich inner life. The public really connected with this portrayal. They could believe that such a woman had a relationship with Jefferson. The book became an international bestseller.

Because the book was so popular, a TV mini-series was planned. However, some historians who wanted to protect Jefferson's image put pressure on the TV network. The mini-series was not made at that time.

More than twenty years later, in 2000, a TV mini-series called Sally Hemings: An American Scandal was produced. It showed the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson. This portrayal became widely accepted after a 1998 DNA study. The study showed a match between a Hemings descendant and the Jefferson male family line.

In 2000 and 2001, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and the National Genealogical Society both concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Hemings's children. This was based on the DNA evidence and other historical facts. This agreement among historians has changed how Jefferson's story is told.

In 2012, the Smithsonian Museum and Monticello created an important exhibition. It was called Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello. It explored Jefferson as a slaveholder and focused on six major enslaved families. The exhibit stated that Jefferson was likely the father of all Sally Hemings' children. Over one million people saw this exhibit.

Chase-Riboud's work helped people understand the complex relationships between the Hemings and Jefferson families. Sally Hemings was the much younger half-sister of Jefferson's late wife. This meant she was an aunt to his two daughters.

Her work helped to show the historical presence of mixed-race relationships in America. It also opened up discussions about multiracial communities today. Artists, poets, and writers have continued to explore the Jefferson-Hemings relationship since her book.

In 1991, Chase-Riboud won an important legal case. She had sued a playwright for using her fictional ideas from Sally Hemings. The judge ruled that her creative ideas were protected, even if they were expressed in a slightly different way. This was a big win for artists and writers.

Chase-Riboud v. Dreamworks Lawsuit

In 1997, Chase-Riboud reached an agreement in a lawsuit against DreamWorks. She had claimed that the movie Amistad (1997) copied parts of her novel Echo of Lions. Her novel was about the Amistad mutiny.

It was found that the screenwriter for Amistad had worked on a script based on Chase-Riboud's book earlier. This was under an agreement with another production company. When Chase-Riboud filed a second lawsuit in France, the issue was quickly settled out of court.

Poetry

Chase-Riboud's first poetry book, From Memphis & Peking (1974), was edited by Toni Morrison. It was praised by critics. Her poetry book, Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra, (1987), won the Carl Sandburg Award in 1988. In 1994, she published Roman Egyptien, which was poetry written in French. Her collection Everytime a Knot is Undone, a God is Released: Collected and New Poems 1974–2011 was published in 2014.

Personal Life

In Paris, Barbara Chase met Marc Riboud, a photographer. They married in 1961. They had two sons, David Charles Riboud (born 1964) and Alexis Karol Riboud (born 1967). They traveled a lot together to places like Russia, India, and Greece.

Later, they divorced. In 1981, Chase-Riboud married her second husband, Sergio Tosi. He was an art publisher and expert.

Barbara Chase-Riboud is a citizen of both the United States and France.

Awards and Honors

• 1957: John Hay Whitney Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• 1979: Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Sally Hemings.
• 1988: Carl Sandburg Prize for Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra
• 1993: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Muhlenberg College.
• 1995: James Van Dar Zee Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 1996: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Connecticut.
• 1996: Knighted by the French Government and awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
• 1996: Commissioned for the memorial, Africa Rising, at the African Burial Ground National Monument.
• 2004: Nominated for Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Fiction) for Hottentot Venus
• 2005: "Best Fiction Book of 2004" by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for Hottentot Venus
• 2007: College Art Association Women's Caucus for Art lifetime achievement award.
• 2007: Alain Locke Award from Detroit Institute of Arts
• 2020: "Anonymous Was A Woman" from the Rockefeller Foundation
• 2021: "Laureate of Prix d'Honneur" from AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions)
• 2021: "Laureate of Grand Prix Artistique de la Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca"
• 2022: Knighted by the French Government and awarded the "Legion d'Honneur".

Selected Works

Sculptures

• Last Supper (1958)
• Bullfighter (1958)
• Malcolm X (1970)
• Why Did We Leave Zanibar (1971)
• Confession for Myself (1973)
• Cleopatra's Cape (1973)
• Africa Rising (1998)
• Mao's Organ (2008)

Novels

• Sally Hemings: A Novel (1979)
• Valide: A Novel of the Harem (1986)
• Echo of Lions (1989)
• The President's Daughter (1994)
• Hottentot Venus: A Novel (2003)
• The Great Mrs. Elias: A Novel (2022)

Poetry

• From Memphis & Peking (1974)
• Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra (1987)
• Everytime a Knot is Undone, a God is Released (2014)

Memoir

• I Always Knew: A Memoir (2022)

Related Links

• The Art Blog
• Decades in the Making
• Fred B. Adelson, "Barbara Chase-Riboud brings Malcolm X sculptures home", USA Today, November 5, 2013
• Barbara Chase-Riboud papers at the Stuart A. Rose Library, Emory University
• "American expat artist living in Paris France – Barbara Chase-Riboud", YouTube video, April 27, 2010.
• "Memory Is Everything: Barbara Chase-Riboud", Barbara Chase-Riboud in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mousse Magazine, 60
• Myth of a Colorblind France. Documentary by Alan Govenar featuring Barbara Chase-Riboud.

See also

In Spanish: Barbara Chase-Riboud para niños