Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud’s recent exhibitions include: Alberto Giacometti / Barbara Chase-Riboud: Standing Women of Venice – Standing Black Woman of Venice, Institut Giacometti, Paris (2021); Barbara Chase-Riboud: Avatars, La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels (2020); Barbara Chase-Riboud – Malcolm X: Complete, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY (2017); Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Malcolm X Steles, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (2013); and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA (2014) among many others.

Parallel to her visual and sculptural practice, Chase-Riboud is a distinguished poet and writer of historical fiction. In 1974 she published her first book of poetry, From Memphis & Peking, which was edited by Toni Morrison, and in 1979 she published her first novel Sally Hemings. Her poetry collections include Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra (1987) and Everytime a Knot is Undone, a God is Released (2014), and her widely translated novels include: Valide: A Novel of the Harem (1986); Echo of Lions (1989); The President’s Daughter (1994); Hottentot Venus: A Novel (2003); and The Great Mrs. Elias: A Novel (2022). In October 2022, Princeton University Press will release I Always Knew: A Memoir, an intimate and vivid portrait of Chase-Riboud’s life as told through the letters she wrote to her mother, Vivian Mae Chase, between 1957 and 1991.