Africa Rising

Artist and author Barbara Chase-Riboud has described her bronze sculpture Africa Rising as “an ark of collective history, a vessel of contemplation afloat on an ocean of time and space.”  This artwork is a culmination of Chase-Riboud’s deep engagement with history, literature, poetry, and sculpture.  In this monument, multiple threads of the artist's creative life are woven into a unique, personal expression that addresses the sculpture’s location at the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City.

The large, curved base of the sculpture takes the form of an African headrest.  The artist has described the headrest as a very personal object that is used in many parts of Africa, and which often is included among the burial possessions of the deceased.  For her artwork, Chase-Riboud selected the headrest form because of its beautiful shape, which evokes the idea of a house, or a shrine, or a boat.

Atop the headrest form is a winged female African figure who serves as a symbol of triumph.  The figure’s posture echoes that of a well-known ancient Greek sculpture, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where Chase-Riboud moved after earning her Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 1960, and where she has lived and worked for decades.