This Black History Month, Visit Bentonville joins Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in paying tribute to the generations of African American art and artists that have helped shape the visual culture of the United States and the world.
This month we celebrate the diversity of art in our community, prompted by our museums and cultural institutions that contribute to conversations about Black representation, identity, and achievements in our nation's history and today.
Throughout February and beyond, we welcome everyone to visit Bentonville in 2022 to experience remarkable and thoughtful pieces of art.
Content in this blog is provided by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary.
Edmonia Lewis, “The Old Arrow Maker,” modeled 1866, carved ca. 1872, marble, 20 x 14 x 14 in.
Image by Edward C Robinson III. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
The first female African American and Native American sculptor to receive international prominence, Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907) created sculptures exploring racial themes in a style based on classical Greek and Roman ideals.
Born to a Caribbean (Haitian) father and an Anishinaabe/Ojibwe mother, Edmonia Lewis attended Oberlin College, the first college in the United States open to African Americans, Native Americans, and women. Lewis eventually moved to Rome—a place that, as a woman of color, offered her the artistic freedom to develop an impressive classical sculpture practice.
Edmonia Lewis, “The Old Arrow Maker,” modeled 1866, carved ca. 1872, marble, 20 x 14 x 14 in.
Image by Edward C Robinson III. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Currently on view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, “The Old Arrow Maker” depicts an excerpt from the 1855 epic poem “Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which narrates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, a Dakota woman.
Image courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service recently unveiled its 45th stamp in the Black Heritage Forever® Stamp series featuring a portrait of the artist.
