Beyond Boundaries: The Sculpture of Alice Wesley Ivory

Beyond Boundaries: The Sculpture of Alice Wesley Ivory

On view September 14 – December 14, 2004

Curated by Katherine Slaughter 

In the 1960s when Alice Ivory(1931-1999) began to make sculpture, she was arguably an anomaly. While Black women had been part of the sculptural canon since the early 20th century, when Edmonia Lewis received international acclaim for her work in marble, none would create diminutive anthropomorphic work such as Ivory’s. 

A native of Albemarle County, Ivory attended the Albemarle Training School before receiving a degree from Virginia State University. She began welding objects in 1957 while studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a degree in art education. A prolific artist, her body of work includes almost 100 objects mostly rendered in copper and brass and are of subjects that were familiar to the artist–”birds, fish, insects, etc.” 

Beyond Boundaries consists of nine works by Ivory and a portrait by Francis Brand of Ivory posing with two works–an eagle mounted on a pedestal and a dog that stands at the artist’s feet. 

Beyond Boundaries: The Sculpture of Alice Wesley Ivory is a collaboration between the JSAAHC and the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. It is made possible through the generous support of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Foundation and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center Annual Fund.