DGHM 110 S25 DTA Project

Items

• Detroit Michigan Newspaper Article_1903
  Newspaper article torn in half to fit onto the scrapbook page. Contains the title 'Arts and Crafts' overlaid on a tree with knotted roots. Beneath that is 'The Wretched/ Strange and Powerful Piece of Sculpture by a Philadelphia Mulatto Girl." On second piece is a headshot of Meta with text beneath 'Miss Meta Warrick, A Mulatto Who is Becoming Known as a Sculptor." Above the second piece of this article is written in pencil "Detroit Mich./ July 21-1903" Text is as follows: "Several American women are winning fame in the field of sculpture, and one of the most noted is the young Philadelphia mulatto girl, Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, whose work is creating much comment on both sides of the sea. Miss Warrick is the sculptor whose masterly expression of strange and original thought led the celebrated Rodin to give her special attention during the three years she spent studying in Paris. This young girl has known all the hardships and struggles of lonely student life in the great French City, and while also struggled wrought her emotions into her work, which is expressive of the despair which often overtook her. However success was near. When she was (this paragraph is crossed out with a blue pencil) scarely 19 years of age she took one of her models to Rodin. He recognized the genius in her handiwork, and from that time on she was his protege. One of the finest pieces of her work, 'The Wretched', a copy of which is shown on this page, so attacted the attention of M. Bing, the great French Sculptor, that he had it cast in bronze. Art-loving Paris was amazed at this example of the young girl's work, of whihc it has been said that 'the original conception, the movement of palpitating life, the masterly grouping, would be remarkable for a mature man.' Miss Warrick has a great field open to her, and every promise of being able to fill it ot the satifsaction of her fellow artists. She is Philadelphian born and bred, and at the School of Industrial Art she received the education and encouragement necessary to send her to Paris to study, and, after her return home, the first public recognition of the art world, for she is now on the school board of control."
• Newspaper article_1902
  Small newspaper article with handwritten. In two parts with title cut out above small article. Article is as follows: "Negress Sculptor Wins Honors in Paris/ Meta Vaux Warrick, the talented young negress sculptor of Philadelphia, has received word from Paris that five of her small statues have been accepted for this year's Salon. Of these titles of three are "Mauvais Larron," (Bad Thief) "L'Homme qui a Faires" (The Dead Man?) and "Les Miserables." (The Wretched)
• North American_1902
  Long newspaper article with a separate headder "Philadelphia Woman is a Successful Playwright and Another a Maker of Weird Statuary" with pencil notation "The North American Sunday". The article about Meta is longwise and contains two pixel images of 'Secret Suffering (Sorrow) and "The Wretched". The article has another headder "Philadelphia Mulato Girl's Statuary Weird as Rodin's" The article is as follows: "There are women who model in clay and women who carve in marble. They sometimes produce things of beauty having lines of charm and delicacy, but in these examples of feminine art one misses that touch of power which characterizes the work of men. Let the things they do be cast in the most lasting bronze, they will yet look as soft as wax. One woman there is, indeed, who may claim exception from this mild indictment. She is Meta Vaux Warrick, sculptor - one hesitates to use the term sculptress. Climb four flights of stairs in the quaint old-fashioned building, 1432 South Penn Square, rap on the door that bears her card, and it will be opened by a young mulatto woman of remarkably prepossessing appearance. She is the sculptor whose masterly epression of strange and original thought led Rodin - the celebrated, uniquel Rodin - to give her his special attention and a great deal of his valuable time during the three years of study she spent in Paris. Meta Warrick was born 23 years ago in South Twelfth street, Philadelphia, of hardworking, ambitious parents. Her mother is a hairdresser, her father was a barber. She does not know of anyone related to her who has taste or talent for art. When she went to the public schools, modeling clay was put into her hands and she found her element. Those people who in the educational movement stand up for the aesthetic principle, hoping to discover artistic talent in teh children of the people, must congratulate themseles on this young woman. It was worth while putting modeling tools into many inept fingers to discover a gift like hers. She won a scholarship in the School of Industrial Art and there carried off first prize for modeling. She is to-day on its board of control. Urgued by her instructors and aided by her self-sacrificing mother, she sailed for Paris to study the art to which she was born. There she drew under Collin, modeled the antique under Carles and had as instructors Ingalbert and Rollard. She studied the art galleries and throught long and hard, finding herself a stranger in a strange land in more ways than one. After six months of this she abandoned the paths of conventional study, took a studio and worked by herself, depending on an artist friend for criticism. Thus she labored, alone but not lonesome, so eager and earnest that she frequently forgot to eat the food she had purchased with her scanty allowance. Despair came to her after - the black despair of the artist possessed by talent too great to be set aside or destroyed. When she was scarcely nineteen she took to Rodin a small clay which caused him, who had seen and known so much, to gasp at its power and daring. It was the study of a man eating his heart. In some strange, obscure way which one shrinks at analyzing, she has drawn the heart from the breast of an agonized man and put it into his convulsed hands where he gnaws it. It symbolizes unceasing sorrow profoundly secret and silent. Under the great master she produced rapidly. After her study with Rodin, M. Bing, of the celebrated galleries of L'Art Nouveau, threw open his salon for an exhibition of her works, of which he sold a number. The well-known art critic, Edouard Gerard, wrote a glowing preface to the catalogue and stirred Paris with interest. M. Bing had "The Wretched" cast in bronze, and when the critics saw it they called it genius. It is the expression of wretchedness in all its phases: in resignation, in despair, in torpor, in rebellion, and in defiance. The original conception, the movement of palpitating life, the mature man. As it is the work of a young girl one ponders deeply for an explaination. The answer is found, perhaps, in the artist's mixed race. The white blood in Miss Warrick's veins cannot say "It is mine," for African speaks here. In the "Man Gnawing his Heart" her Ethiopian descent expressess itself, and in all her other works there is the voice of that people. In her graceful "Spirit Dancing" with its roughly modeled face, there is a visible and mad abandon of the Voodoo. "The Impenitent Thief," starting in its unsparing truth, shows the crucified man cursing God as he dies in the determined defiance of bondage. The most nearly feminine thing that this young woman has yet done is a little fancy six inch high called "Dispair." The face is hidden, but the writhing limbs closely interlaced tell its thought. Turn it any way you choose, glance at but a part of it, and still you perceive clearly that it is the despairing remorse of a woman's heart. In all her work there is the sadness of serpent-infested swamps, the mysteris of miasmatic forests, the sombre glow of evening skies relfected in lonely payous. Yet Miss Warrick has not a morbid personality. Canaries sing in her little studio and she has a feminine fondness for pretty clothes. The fingers that modeled the "Impenitent Thief" can trim a hat with Parisian 'smartness.'
• Philadelphia Inquirer_1903
  Long newspaper article with handwritten above in pencil 'Sunday Inquirer/ Dec 19-1902(or 3). Article is as follows: "Miss Meta Warrick has taken a studio 1432 South Penn Square. She has just returned from three years' study in Paris where she worked alone in her own studio. Rodin criticised her work and no one can look at the pieces she has brought back without feeling how much she has been influenced by her great master. Perhaps the best is a fine head of John the Baptist, a type of vigorous and exalted youth. A portrait study of a young girl is very pleasant. But the main interest of her work is comprised in ten or twelve small casts - groups and signle figures. These are truely Rodinesque through their intensity of thought expression. And what thoughts! One could more readily understand them in a strong man, but hardly in a young and happy girl. All violent or fantastic, they are too sugestive of a Maupassant, they show a morbidness, a lack of altruism from which one shrinks. Her "Oedipus" is an image of anquish, he has torn his eyes from their bleeding sockets and kneels, his face upturned as if with a terrible effort at sight. In another, "Death," a grizly horror leans on his staff and laughts while the wind blows his long cloak. "The Cloud" shows a fantastic group of figures. Those beneath are bent with sorrow and pain, they wring their arms and allow their streaming hair to hide the light of day, those above clasp their hands meekly or look upward with joyous countenances. They see the bright uses of the heavens whatever sorrow is under their feet. Her "Primitive Woman" is a cat-like creature, terribly near the brute, who crawls along with a strange questioning face. Rather more pleasant is one called "The Flame," an upward curling tounge of fire, which is all compact of sinuous creatures, some beautiful, some repulsive, what any dreamer might see in the fierce element. All her work has a value. Its very abandon makes it effective; with a more mature judgement and a stronger technique it would be powerful. All that she needs is technique to be the master of brute facts and make bone and muscle spring into life under her hands. That one acquired, it only means study, she might be anything she wished. The blood of the long enslaved negro runs in her veins and inspires her with weird conceptions and strange Heina-like contrasts. All the feelings of her race, the 'hants' and 'spirits' of the South, the bitter philosophy of the North may find spledid expression in her."
• Philadelphia Sunday Press_1902
  Large, folded article about Meta Warrick and her sculptures from the Philadelphia Sunday Press October 19, 1902. It is quite an impressive spread, with lots of text and images of her works. Images include one of her seated facing right and three works: 'John the Baptist', The Thief on the Cross', and one of her workong on a standing nude. Headline is as follows "The only Sculptress of her Race. Meta Vaux Warrick a Philadelphia colored girl wins fame and honor in the art schools of France. Foreign masters and critics declare that her works reveals a master of the Sculptor's Art that promises Great Results in the Future. she is a product of the Art Schools of This City." Full typed article will be found on the server. The article notes her amazing drawing tallents that won her a scholarship and goes into detail on her time in Paris, and about her setting up a studio in Philadelphia.
• Newspaper_1900
  Small newspaper add from an unknown newspaper. States "Only Sculptress of her race, Meta Warrick, a Philadelphia colored girl, wins fame and honor in the studios of France. Foreign critics declare that her work reveals a master skill."
• New York --ter Newspaper Article_1900
  Newspaper article with a photograph of a sculpture bust with the wrighting beneath "'Bust' - Miss Meta Vaux Warrick". Beside the article written in pencil is "New York __ter" Newspaper article is as follows: "Among Philadelphia artists of note at the exhibition is Miss Blanche Dillaye, who exhibits an attractive moonlight - a row of old houses with a lamplit window or two reflected in quiet water - and a twilight, entitled 'Nuit d'Ete.' The latter is the charming view of a vast field with gently sloping hills beyond a wooded hollow. Ther far horizon is defined against a luminous sky where fleecy clouds reflect the last rays of the sun. The sense of distance and the tranquillity of evening are very finely interpreted. Another Philadelphian, whose name is not yet so well known, is Miss Mary Smyth Perkins, a former student at the School of Design in Philadelphlia, and at present a pupil in Mr. Parker's studio. Miss Perkins exhibits three very creditable little views of the Luxembourg ; nice in tone and composition. Other Philadephians include: Mrs. Inez Addams, an apprentice of Whistler's; Mrs. E. Plaisted Abbott, whose plaster advertising the present exhibition is not the least attractive thing t obe seen there ; Miss Edith Bristol S. Stone, whose portrait of Miss K., whose Holland scene and those still-life all display a wide range of talent, and Miss Veta Vaux Warrick, who has the distinction of being the only sculptor represented."
• La Fronde_1902
  Elle a vingt ans à peine; et il y a déjà plus que promesses dans ouvrages. Même ils étonnent par les plus rare qualités. Mlle Meta Warrick sait réfléchir, sait vouloir. Elle ne traduit pas n'importe quel aspect des choses, --mais, parmi les aspects les plus caractéristiques, choisit le plus caractéristique. Cette recherche exige une extrême acuité d'observation, et, dans l'esprit, la faculté tout intellectuelle de saisir en chaque objet les principes qui formeront synthèse. Il faut aussi de la hardiesse, oser s'exprimer librement, et ne pas faire de concessions aux mannieres convenues de voir et de sentir. Sur la jeune artiste ne pêse aucun dogme d'Ecole. Elle médite, elle rêve, elle travaille sans que la tyrannie des formules l'intimide. De plus, on doit estimer les statues, statuettes, groupes exposé ici pour l'équilibre, les heureuses combinaisons de lignes, le mouvement. Le movement surtout, la vie nervouse, inquiète, tourmentée, L'imgination de Mlle Warrick est, en effet, tournée vers les effrois, les fievers, les souffrances. Elle a dédié aux Malheureux un groupe des plus dramatiques, d'une belle vigueur de conception, d'une ordonnance plastique tout à fait louable. De la même compassion sans mièvrerie est né l'Homme qui a faim, le misérable qui n'a plus que son coeur à manger, et qui le ronge avec les grimaces, les contorsions du désespoir. Désespoir sans grossièreté, sans prosaïsme même, qui est realisée sculpturalement--la peine affreuse déscrite, se figure-t-on, par quelque conte, quelque ballade, quelque légende... Même impression est donnée par le Mauvais larron, morceau considérable, qu'il faut espérer voir l'an prochain au Grand Palais. Et je veux citer encore des figurines comme l'homme qui rit, l'Homme à l'épine, Falstaff, la Mort dans le vent, si bizarrement souples, des groupes mouvants, turbulents, énergiques comme les Lutteurs, Feux follets, les Satyres. Mlle Warrick est une Américaine de Philadelphie. Elle travaille là-bas selon le système d'un professeur allemand, -- système propice au développement de l'imagination, de la volonté, de la franchise dans l'expression. Trente, quarante, cinquante equisses différentes étaient demandées sur le même sujet à la toute jeune élève. C'était l'habituer à ne pas s'en remettre aux premieres impulusion de son instinct d'artiste, à les raisonner, à s'interroger profondément; c'était rendre sa vision pénétrante. Depuis trois ans qu'elle est en France Mlle Warrick a continué, dans la discipline du travail, à prendre posession d'elle-même. La Fronde 26 Juin" In English: "Sculpture / Miss Meta Warrick / She is barely twenty; and there is already more than promises in his works. Even they amaze with the rarest qualities. Miss Meta Warrick knows how to think, knows how to want. It does not translate just any aspect of things - but, among the most characteristic aspects, chooses the most characteristic. This research requires an extreme acuity of observation, and, in the mind, the entirely intellectual faculty of grasping in each object the principles which will form a synthesis. It is also necessary to be bold, to dare to express oneself freely, and not to make concessions to the agreed manners of seeing and of knowing. No school dogma weighs on the young artist. She meditates, she dreams, she works without the tyranny of formulas intimidating her. In addition, we must estimate the statues, statuettes, groups exhibited here for the balance, the happy combinations of lines, the movement. Above all, movement, nervous, restless, tormented life. Ms. Warrick's imagination is, in fact, turned towards fear, fever, suffering. She dedicated to the Unhappy a group of the most dramatic, of a beautiful vigor of conception, of a quite laudable plastic order. From the same compassion without meekness is born the Man who is lazy (Lazy Bones), the miserable one who has only his heart to manage, and who gnaws at it with grimaces, the contortions of despair. Despair, without rudeness, without even prosaism, which is carried out sculpturally - the awful pain described, one imagines, by some tale, some ballad, some legend ... The same impression is given by the Bad Thief (Theif on the Cross), piece considerable, which we can hope to see next year at the Grand Palais. And I still want to cite figurines like the Laughing Man, the Thorny Man, Falstaff, Death in the Wind, so strangely supple, moving, turbulent, energetic groups like Wrestlers, Wisps, Satyrs. Miss Warrick is an American from Philadelphia. She works there according to the system of a German professor, - a system conducive to the development of imagination, will, frankness in expression. Thirty, forty, fifty different exquises were requested on the same subject from the very young pupil. It was to get him used to not relying on the first impulses of his artistic instinct, to reason with them, to question himself deeply; it was to make his vision penetrating. For three years that she has been in France Miss Warrick has continued, in the field of work, to take possession of herself. The Fronde June 26 "
• The Daily Eagle_August 10 1902
  Newspaper article from The __ Daily Eagle of New York dated Sunday August 10, 1902. Contains a long article about Meta as well as a drawing of her, full bodied, leaning back on a couch wearing a stripped dress and holding a hat. The article is as follows: "Miss Meta Warrick/ An American Colored Woman Who Gives Promise as a Sculptor./ Those of you who are interested in American art, must remember the name of Meta Warrick. Meta Warrick is a colored American girl, and a sculptor. She came here two years ago. She had hardly enough money to travel and keep herself in half-starved way, for a year, then her mother managed to keep her another year. What she has accomplished is marvelous; marvelous because she found a way to accomplish it, and marvelous her art will be. I have very little faith in a woman sculptor. They will succeed in making a bust of a pretty woman or a statuette, which, even in marble, will look as soft as putty. But Miss Warrick cannot be classed in that category of woman sculptors. When she went to Rodin with a piece of her work, he said: 'But, mademoiselle, you are a sculptor. Your work is powerful.' I think Miss Warrick, will prove, if she works long enough, to have not only talent, but genius. There is already the sign of it in the works she exhibited at Bings. To critics and amateurs they were a revolution. Now, people who are fond of sweet little sculptured angels, academical art in general, will at once class Miss Warrick's work as vulgar, gross, painful and pay no more attention to it. Every piece of her sculpture, in fact, tells a tale of woe of sorrow, of fear, or of intense love or joy. For instance, her almost life-sized thief on the cross is almost frightful to behold. It is the realistic face of the thief in the throes of death, with protruding lips, that become blanched with blasphemies as well as death. Every line of the body shows anatomical study and that the girl did not hesitate to produce the lines as her vision of the thief revealed them to her. In her studio she has a small plaster relief which was inspired by the lines: be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds the sun is shining' The relief is a cloud peopled with the suffering, the sorrowful and the desparing, then around the edge, those who can see the light behind the cloud take courage, and the smile of hope on their faces is intense. Think of the powerful imagination of that woman. Her grandfather, while she sat on his lap, as a little child, fed her mind with ghost stories; she saw much suffering around her: she afterward learned Edgar Alan Poe's weird tales by hear. All this she materailzed in plaster and some of her works, I must repeat, are marvelous. She herself is not at all morbid in disposition. She talks well, has a certain education. She is so much wrapped in her work that she said to me, 'I might stay well with my mother in Philadelphia and be well clothed, have a good table, and a better roof than the rickety one of a studio over my head, but no privation can keep me from my work'"
• Philadelphia Sunday Press_July 20, 1902
  Newspaper article with a reprinted drawing image of Meta. The image is her from the side, but facing slightly backwards to the left. She has a flat hat and a bow in her hair, which is tied into a bun at her neckline. Underneath the image is printed 'Miss Meta Warrick/ A young Philadelphia sculptor.' Above this article in pen is written 'Sunday Press July 20 - 1902' The article, cut out seperately, but pasted overlapping the drawing is as follows: 'Miss Meta Warrick, whose portrait from an etching by Duvre appears above, returns to this city from a stay of several years in Paris toward the end of this month. After a visit to Atlandic City, Miss Warrick will open a studio in this city. She had already made her mark among the youngest art students of the city before she left it. A most promising sketch by her, made in 1898, while a student at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, is still on exhibition at the school as worthy permanent attention. In Paris Miss Warrick has studied at the Julian Academy and elsewhere. She has twice had a special exhibition of her work, the last of some twenty-two members, exhibited in June at "L'Art Nouveau, Bing." on the Rue de Provence. "In her work," writes the critic, Mr. Edouard Gerard, "there is much promise because there is in them the most precious qualities that one can find in a young artist - sense of form, originality of view, an easy daring and force of expression." Miss Warrick has sought, as he points out, in her work movement, vigor and a sense of extreme action. "Mlle. Warrick," says Mr. Gerard, "does not feel with the French poet. I hate the movement which displaced the line and believed instead that the line is the chief gift movement has to creat. In her art she constantly seeks it. Nothing seems alien to this young genious which conceives and executes with a singular force."
• Boston Sunday Journal_August 17, 1902
  Newspaper article from the Boston Sunday Journal dated August 17, 1902. "American Colored Girl Startles Paris By Her Art. Paris, Aug. 16 - Americans in Paris are much interested in the work of Meta Warrick, a colored American girl, and a sculptor. She had hardly enough money to travel and keep herself in a half-starved way, for a year, then her mother managed to keep her antoher year. What she has accomplished is marvelous: marvelous because she found a way to accomplish it, and marvelous her art will be. When she went to Rodin with a piece of her work, he said 'But madamoiselle, you are a sculptor, your work is powerful. Miss Warrick will prove, if she works long enough, to have not only talent, but genious. There is already signs of it in the work she exhibited at Bings. To critics and amateurs they were a revelation. Every piece of her sculpture, in fact, tells a tale of woe, of sorrow, of fear, or of intense love or joy. For instance, her almost life-sized Theif on the Cross is almost freightful to behold. It is the realistic face of the theif in the throes of death, with protruding lips, that becomes blanched with blasphemies as well as death. Every line of the body shows anatomical study and that the girl did not hesitate to produce the lines as her vision of the theif revealed them ot her. In her studio she has a small plaster relief which was inspired by these lines: Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds the sun is shining The releif is a cloud peopled, with the suffering, the sorrowful and the desparing, then around the edge those who can see the light behind the cloud take courage, and the smile of hope on their faces is intense. Her grandfather, while she sat on his lap as a little child fed her mind with ghost stories; she saw much suffering around her; she afterward neared Edgar Allan Poe's weird tales by heart. All this she materializes in plaster and some of her works are marvelous. She herself is not at all morbid in disposition. She talks well, has a certain education. She is so much wrapped in her work that she said: "I might stay with my mother in Philadelphia and be well clothed, have a good table and a better roof than the rickety one of a studio over my head; but no privation can keep me from my work."
• Atlantic City paper_July 21, 1902
  Newspaper article in English from the Atlantic City, New Jersey published Monday July 21, 1902. "Miss Warrick Returns - Daughter of a Resident Here is an Artist of Renown. Miss Meta Warrick, daughter of Mrs. Emma Warrick, of 1002 Atlantic avenue, this city, who went to Paris about four years ago, to complete her education as an artist, arrived in New York Saturday evening on the steamer Umbria. After visiting her mother here for a time, Miss Warrick will open a studio in Philadelphia. She has already made her mark among the younger art students of the city before she left it. A most promising sketch by her made in 1898 while a student at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, is still on exhibition at the school as worthy permanent attention. In Paris, Miss Warrick has studied at the Julian Academy and elsewhere. She has twice had a special exhibition of her work, the last of some twenty-two members, exhibitied in June, at "L'Art Noveau, Bing," on the Rue de Provence. "In her work," writes the critic, Mr. Edouard Gerard, "there is much promise because there is in them the most precious qualificaties that one can find in a young artist - sense of form, originality of view, an easy daring and force of expression." Arrived Saturday, July 19, 1902 .
• London? Article_1902
  Small typed article on white paper, cut out and attached to another sheet of white paper. Around the article in handwritten cursive states "Nomaul_od 5-Agar St Stroud Londres)" above and "Compliments - de Madame de Montaigue" The article is as follows: "Even the coloured race are coming to the front, notably in the case of Miss Nina Warrick, of Philadelphia, who is studying sculpture under celebrated French masters. Miss Warrick is undoubtedly endowed with talent, and will make her mark in the world of art. She is a young woman of colour, with a good education, and is attractive in manner. She is making a life-size figure of "The Thief on the Cross" for the forthcoming Salon, which shows great originality of conception and a knowledge of anatomy."
• Newspaper Clipping_1901
  Long newspaper article in English about American women in Paris, focusing on Meta Fuller. No date or newspaper name give, though from language of article appears to be one written in Georgia. Article states there are 401 women in this school (unclear which one) with over half from foreign countries. States Meta lived with her mother Mrs. Emma Warrick on 1004 Atlantic Avenue in Georgia and where she spent her summers after moving to Philadelphia. Meta won the Crozier prize and entered the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. She sailed for Paris on September 30th on the Belgenland via Liverpool, England, entirely on her own. With very few women artists focused on sculpture the author of this article states 'Added to the young artist's undoubted talent, she is possessed of wonderful pluck, energy and perserverance, and will undoubtedly win a high place in the Art World."
• Newspaper Article Jamestown Exhibition_1906
  Newspaper article with a short article about the Jamestown Exhibition to be held next summer. Mentioned in the first paragraph Meta Warrick and her studio "over a brick stable in a narrow Philadelphia street."
• Self Portrait
• Etude, male
• Oeuvres de Mlle Meta Warrick
  catalogue
• Exposition Card
• Exposition inaugurale organisée par P. Mañach à la Galerie B. Weill, du 2 au 31 décembre 1901
• Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts Exhibition
• Meta Warrick in her Philadelphia Studio
• Philadelphia Studio
• Exposition de Sculptures de Mlle Meta Warrick
• "Philadelphia Mulatto Girl's Statuary Weird as Rodin's"
  The North American Sunday