Alice Morgan Wright | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sophia Smith Collection/Alice Morgan Wright (Smith class 1904) | |
| Born | (1881-10-10)October 10, 1881 Albany, New York |
| Died | April 8, 1975(1975-04-08) (aged 93) Albany, New York |
| Resting place | Albany Rural Cemetery,Menands, New York |
| Education | Académie Colarossi Art Students League of New York Smith College École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts |
| Occupation(s) | Artist, Suffragist, Activist |
| Partner | Edith J. Goode |
Alice Morgan Wright (October 10, 1881 – April 8, 1975) was an American sculptor,suffragist, andanimal welfare activist. She was one of the first American artists to embrace Cubism and Futurism.[1]
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Wright came from an oldAlbany, New York family. She was born October 10, 1881, in Albany, to Henry Romeyn Wright, a prosperous wholesale grocer, and Emma Jane Morgan.[2]
A student at St. Agnes School in Albany (nowDoane Stuart School), Wright graduated fromSmith College in 1904 and continued her studies, in sculpture, at theArt Students League of New York.[2] The League awarded Wright both the Gutzon Borglum and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens prizes for her outstanding art work.[2]
Prohibited from attending life studies while attending the Art Students League, Wright watched local boxing and wrestling competitions in order to study the human form.[3][4]
In 1909, Wright went toParis, where she attended theÉcole des Beaux-Arts and theAcadémie Colarossi. In Paris she was a pupil ofInjalbert and in New York she studied withGutzon Borglum,James Earle Fraser andHermon Atkins MacNeil.[5]
She exhibited domestically at theArt Institute of Chicago and theArt Institute of Philadelphia, and her work appeared in Europe at theRoyal Academy of Arts (London) and theSalon des Beaux Arts (Paris).[6] She was a member of theNational Association of Women Painters and Sculptors as well as a founding member and director of theSociety of Independent Artists.[7]
"The Fist," perhaps her best known sculpture, shows the modernist influence ofAuguste Rodin; other works, like "Medea" (1920), integrated avant-garde Cubist and even Futurist elements. It is likely influenced by the struggle for women's voting rights.[8] Wright also produced more conventional pieces throughout her career. Wright worked slowly and often moved back and forth between a conservative and a more experimental style.[8]
Wright was a member of theNational Sculpture Society.[9] She exhibited two pieces,Wind Figure, a stone carving andYoung Faun, a bronze statuette, at the Societies 1923 exhibition.[10] Her very abstracted workMedea was shown at the 1929 exhibition.[11]
Betsy Fahlman curated a retrospective exhibit of Wright's work in 1978 at theAlbany Institute of History & Art titledSculpture and Suffrage: The Art and Life of Alice Morgan Wright (1881–1975).[12]
By 1945, Wright had abandoned art in favor of her animal rights activism.[2]
Wright was also an ardent suffragist. She worked for the Collegiate Equal Suffrage League.[2] While studying art in Europe, Wright involved herself in both the British and French suffrage movements; notably, Wright organized a meeting in Paris where English suffragistEmmeline Pankhurst spoke.[2] Wright also arranged for Pankhurst to make an appearance in Albany during her tour of the United States in 1911.[2]
With the nationalWomen's Social and Political Union, she participated in militant demonstrations in England. She was incarcerated for two months inHolloway Prison,London. With other suffragettes, she protested her treatment by participating in ahunger strike. Wright used uneaten food to create models of her fellow prisoners, usingsugar cubes as bases, rather than let it go to waste.[13] She and over 60 other prisoners embroidered their signature onThe Suffragette Handkerchief under the noses of the prison guards.[14] Wright also used smuggledplasteline to model a portrait bust of her fellow prisoner, Pankhurst.[15] Wright continued her suffrage activism after her return to the United States in 1914. She was Recording Secretary of the Woman's Suffrage Party ofNew York during the winning campaign.[16] Wright only returned to sculpture full-time after the passage of theNineteenth Amendment.[2] In 1921, she helped to create theLeague of Women Voters of New York State.[7]
Wright was an anti-vivisectionist and advocated the humane treatment of animals.[17] In 1920, Wright returned to Albany and gradually turned away from art to focus on animal rights.[18] Wright was a benefactress to theNational Humane Education Society; in 1950, with Wright's help, the NHES established its first animal care facility, called the Peace Plantation Animal Sanctuary.[19] Wright also wrote the organization's 12 Guiding Principles, which is still in use.[19] In 1957, Wright lobbied PresidentEisenhower against using animals in medical testing and scientific research; in 1958, Congress passed theHumane Slaughter Act.[20]
Wright andEdith J. Goode were lifetime companions.[21] Goode was born inSpringfield, Ohio, and raised in Washington, D.C.[21] Goode attendedSidwell Friends, at that time a small Quaker School, then attendedSmith College (like Wright, graduating in 1904) where the two women met, and together they worked tirelessly for peace and justice.[2] Goode was a member of theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom and co-founder of theNational Woman's Party.[21] Goode also served as a president ofThe Humane Society of the United States.[22]
Wright served as a delegate to the 1948United Nations assembly inParis. Around the same time, Wright also served as an organizer forUnited Nationals Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[20] Wright was avegetarian.[23]
Wright died in Albany at the age of 93, on April 8, 1975.[2] Wright and Goode created the Alice Morgan Wright-Edith Goode Fund, an endowed trust that supports animal welfare organizations.[22]
This article incorporates text available under theCC BY 3.0 license.
This article incorporates text fromThe Woman's Journal, by Woman Citizen Corporation, a publication from 1921, now in thepublic domain in the United States.
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