Barbara Chase-Riboud
1939
Introduction
Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is an American and French visual artist, sculptor, novelist, and poet.
After becoming established as a sculptor and poet, Chase-Riboud gained widespread recognition as an author for her novel Sally Hemings (1979). It earned the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction, and became an international success.
Chase-Riboud's novel about Sally Hemings generated discussion about the likely relationship between the young enslaved woman and her master, Thomas Jefferson, who became president of the United States. Mainline historians rejected Chase-Riboud's portrayal and persuaded CBS not to produce a planned TV mini-series adapted from the novel. Following DNA analysis of descendants in 1998, the Jefferson-Hemings relationship is widely accepted by historians as fact, including those who had objected before.
From September 2024 to January 2025, the solo exhibition Barbara Chase-Riboud: Everytime A Knot is Undone, A God is Released showcased her sculpture, drawing and poetry from 1958 to the present in eight major institutions in Paris, France – Musée d’Orsay, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Musée du Louvre, Philharmonie de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Musée du Quai Branly, Musée Guimet and Palais de Tokyo – the first such celebration of a living artist.
Wikidata identifier
Q2883927
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed January 25, 2026.
Introduction
Barbara Chase-Riboud is an African-American sculptor from Philadelphia. She received a B.F.A. from Temple University and an M.F.A. from Yale. Chase-Riboud works primarily in bronze; she is also a writer of novels.
Roles
Artist, sculptor, writer
ULAN identifier
500099928
Names
Barbara Chase-Riboud, Barbara Chase, Barbara Dewayne Chase-Riboud, B. Chase-Riboud, Barbara Riboud, Barbara Chase Riboud, Barbara Chase- Riboud, Barbara née Chase
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed January 26, 2026.
