A sculptor and writer, Barbara Chase-Riboud is known for her African- inspired abstract sculptures that combine polished bronze with fiber. She is regarded as one of the new generation of black artists because of her extensive formal education and extensive travel. She was one of the first women to travel into the People's Republic of China and later established residency in Italy and France as well as New York City.

She was born to a middle-class family in Philadelphia, and her amateur artist father encouraged her talent including her enrollment in Fletcher Art School at the age of seven. She received a BFA and PhD from Temple University in Philadelphia and an MFA from Yale University, where she, the only black woman at the school, ...