Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: A Fearless Trailblazer Who Confronted and Challenged the Art World
Title: Rediscovering Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: A Sculptor Who Refused to Be Erased
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960), a pioneering Afro-Indigenous sculptor, is receiving long-overdue recognition at the Brooklyn Museum with a powerful retrospective titled Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch. This exhibition presents an in-depth exploration of Prophet’s artistic career and legacy, shedding light on her profound resilience and contributions to American art history.
A Trailblazing Artist of Afro-Indigenous Heritage
Prophet was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, to a Narragansett father and an African-American mother. Despite systemic racial and gender barriers, she became the first person of color to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1918. Prophet’s artistic journey was marked by perseverance against invisibility. She moved to Paris in 1922 to continue developing her voice away from the ingrained biases of American institutions—a decision that reshaped her creative outlook and brought her into dialogue with global artistic traditions.
Merging African, European, and Personal Influences
The exhibition is thoughtfully divided into two main galleries. The first centers on Prophet’s body of work, featuring wood and stone sculptures that highlight her mastery of figural form. A standout piece, “Congolais” (1931), speaks to Prophet’s engagement with Pan-African identity and historical memory. Carved from cherrywood, the bust is believed to depict an East African Maasai man and references resistance against European imperialism. Though titled to reflect Congolese identity, the sculpture subtly critiques colonial authority while celebrating African strength and dignity.
Prophet’s style fused the aesthetics of classical European sculpture with African artistic traditions. Key works such as the paired busts titled “Silence” (1926) present serene, contemplative figures that bear the smooth finish and idealized beauty of Renaissance art while also viewers with emotional complexity—a duality reflective of her own experience navigating multiple cultural identities.
Exploring Artistic Versatility
Beyond sculpture, Prophet expressed herself through drawing, watercolor, and bas relief, a range of which is on display in the exhibition. Her nature scenes—such as “Walk Among the Lilies” (1931–32)—are vibrant and impressionistic, employing bold colors that reflect the influence of modernist painting. These watercolor landscapes demonstrate her versatility, as well as her sensitivity to emotion and environment.
Documentation also played a key role in her practice. The exhibit includes archival photographs of Prophet’s sculptures, many of which are the sole surviving visual evidence of lost works. These images are crucial to understanding the full breadth of her career and show the artist’s own efforts to preserve her legacy amid a cultural landscape that often marginalized her contributions.
A Life of Struggle and Self-Reinvention
Despite her evident talent, Prophet faced constant challenges due to the racial and gendered exclusions of her era. Opportunities remained few and far between, and she routinely confronted economic hardship. Her struggle for recognition led her to experiment with how she presented herself: she sometimes emphasized her Narragansett heritage over her African roots, and at times signed her work as “Eli Prophet” to obscure her gender.
After teaching at Spelman College from 1934 to 1944, Prophet returned to Rhode Island, where she remained until her death in 1960. Yet despite a lifetime of creative output, she never received a solo museum exhibition during her lifetime—a glaring omission that the current retrospective seeks to correct.
Honoring Her Artistic Legacy
The second gallery of the exhibition focuses on Prophet’s enduring impact. A timeline of archival photographs narrates her life story, while a period video of Prophet teaching provides a rare glimpse into her presence and pedagogical style. One of the exhibition’s most powerful moments comes from the inclusion of the 2022 film “Conspiracy” by Simone Leigh and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, documenting the labor of Black women sculptors. Shown alongside Prophet’s tools, the film draws a poignant connection between past and present generations of sculptors who share Prophet’s dedication and ingenuity.
For contemporary artists like Leigh, Prophet’s legacy is foundational. Through her dogged pursuit of excellence amid adversity, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet carved a path that others continue to walk today.
A Long-Awaited Recognition
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch is more than an exhibition—it is an act of restorative justice. It not only celebrates Prophet’s exceptional talent, but also confronts the historical erasure of Black and Indigenous women in the art world. Her story is one of perseverance in the face of systemic exclusion, and her work is a testament to the power of art to endure beyond the confines of time and circumstance.
Running through July 13, the Brooklyn Museum exhibition—originally curated by the RISD Museum and brought to New York by Catherine Morris and Carla Forbes—offers an essential opportunity to engage deeply with an artist whose story and contributions demand a space in the canon of American art