Renowned sculptor’s work comes to Montana for first time in exhibit at Museum of the Rockies

BOZEMAN - A new exhibit opening Saturday, Oct. 17, at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies will unite an acclaimed sculptor's artwork and historical artifacts with those of her brother for the first time in Montana.

"Chisel and Razor: Art, Entrepreneurship and the Lewis Family" includes original artwork by Edmonia Lewis, the first Black and Indigenous artist to earn international recognition for neoclassical sculpture. Lewis' artwork and personal life have long been a topic of study among researchers worldwide, from her creation of a popular art studio in Rome to the mystery surrounding her later years when she disappeared from archival records. Her life spanned roughly 1844 to 1907.

Lewis' support system can be traced back to Bozeman, where her brother Samuel W. Lewis settled in 1868 shortly after the Civil War. He funded Edmonia Lewis' education and encouraged her to live abroad while he made a name for himself in the Bozeman community as a leader, performer and entrepreneur, said Melissa Ragain, MSU professor of art history who researches American and modern art in the College of Arts and Architecture. Though Edmonia Lewis was never able to visit her bother in Bozeman, Ragain said the exhibit is meant to reunite the Lewis siblings.

Ragain and Regina Gee, MSU professor of art history who studies Roman art, curated the exhibit with an advisory group that includes MSU professors Anita Moore-Nall and Jelani Mahiri, along with several artists, historians and graduate students. Annya Jacobs, Museum of the Rockies' collections manager and registrar, and her team secured loans of sculptures, paintings and historical objects from other museums and art institutions from across the country. Nathaniel Black, the museum's exhibition fabricator and journeyman, also built mounts for many objects on display.

Montana Technological University students engineered a highlight of the exhibit, a 3D printed exhibition copy of Edmonia Lewis' 3-ton sculpture "The Death of Cleopatra."

Edmonia Lewis' nearly life-size marble piece depicts Queen Cleopatra VII collapsed on her throne, moments away from death. Gee is studying how the historical presence of Cleopatra in Rome, a city the ruler visited several times, may have influenced Edmonia Lewis' version of the final moments of the famous Egyptian queen. Gee's findings will be included in her presentation at the Museum of the Rockies for a symposium coinciding with the exhibition.

The symposium, "On the Edge of American: Art, Exodusters and Expatriates, 1850-1900," will be held from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 23-24. It is free and open to the public, organized by Ragain and Gee.

Historians from across the country will gather to share new research on creativity and migration among Black and Afro-Indigenous artists, designers and performers in the second half of the 19th century. Topics will range from Edmonia Lewis' marble sculpture "Indian Combat" to Grafton Tyler Brown's passage through Yellowstone National Park as the first known African-American artist to illustrate the Pacific Northwest.

The symposium will also feature a keynote discussion with cultural historian Jennifer DeVere Brody and award-winning author and art historian Tiya Miles.

"The Chisel and Razor exhibitions and symposium bring new perspectives to the lives of Samuel and Edmonia Lewis, demonstrating how historical research and artistic practice can deepen our understanding of the past and illuminate our shared humanity," said Dean Adams, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture.

For more information on the symposium and exhibit, visit the Museum of the Rockies website or Ragain's symposium webpage.