Bernstingle Memorial Lecture
About
Inner Intensity and Outer Calm: Figurative Sculpture by Nancy Elizabeth Prophet
While in Paris for twelve years between the world wars, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet created powerful sculptures for which she has become best known – meditative portraits of black men, as well as androgynous, and sometimes racially ambiguous, busts and figures. This lecture by Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller will examine Prophet’s education at the École des Beaux-Arts, and her relationships with influential figures such as W.E.B. DuBois, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Roland Hayes. Leininger-Miller will also discuss the impact of the Colonial Exposition of 1931, and the differing press reception Prophet received in France and the United States.
Free. Registration for this in-person program is requested.
This lecture is supported by the Sellie L. Bernstingle Memorial Docent Fund, named in honor of the late RISD Museum Docent, and organized by the RISD Museum Docents.
Theresa Leininger-Miller, Ph.D., is a Professor of Art History at University of Cincinnati (UC) where she teaches 19th- to 21st-century American and European art history. Her publications include New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934 (Rutgers, 2001); essays in Imprinted: Illustrating Race (Norman Rockwell Museum, 2022), The Routledge Companion to African American Art History, Deborah Grant; Harlem Renaissance; Black Paris; Paris Connections: African American Artists in Paris, Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance; Out of Context: American Artists Abroad; The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris Between the Wars, and Picture Cincinnati in Song; essays in Panorama and Source: Notes in the History of Art; and multiple book and exhibition reviews.
Leininger-Miller has lectured widely in the US and abroad and has guest curated a number of exhibitions at various institutions. At UC, she received the Diversity Ambassador Award, President's Quality Service Award, Outstanding Academic Advising Award, and the Dean's Award for Outstanding Research. This fall, Leininger-Miller is curating two exhibitions on 19th-century photography for the biennial Fotofocus event. Her co-edited book, Illustrated Sheet Music in the U.S., 1830-1930 (London: Bloomsbury) will be out in December.