Sister Tuesday

Sister Tuesday is one of a series of seven sculptures by self-taught artist Leslie Bolling; each one is a sensitive rendition of the daily labors of Black men and women. He hand carved figures in soft poplar wood, here adding gold pigment to suggest the metallic surface of bronze. Although he considered his practice a hobby, Bolling’s work drew the attention of art world critics and patrons of the Harlem Renaissance. He exhibited throughout the 1930s, and in 1938 helped found and taught at the Craig House Art Center. The center was a New Deal–funded community organization in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and the only one in the segregated South open to Black Americans.