Distinctly Montana Magazine

76 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 6 E DMONIA LEWIS WAS A REMARKABLE WOMAN—a woman of Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous descent work- ing in the late 19th century, she was able to overcome the prejudices of her time to become one of the most celebrated neo-Classical artists. Her The Death of Cleopatra debuted with a shock, sending waves of controversy through the art world for what was considered its ghastly realism. Cumbersome to ship from Rome to the US, its shipping was paid for by a windfall left to Lewis by Bozeman resident Lizzie Williams. Displayed at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, it re- ceived wide acclaim, but didn't sell. It fell into obscurity, at one point marking the grave of a Chicago racehorse named Cleopa- tra, before being discovered in the 1980s and restored to a place of honor at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1994. Her other subjects ranged from the biblical Hagar and scenes from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha to abolitionist themes like por- trait busts of Abraham Lincoln and John Brown. Her life and success are as unlikely as they were hard-won, but she couldn't have done it without her older brother Samuel, who was, among other things, a trained magician (learning the art of sleight-of-hand from a professor in Paris), actor, minstrel-show performer, miner, circus artist, and barber. It was the latter pro- fession he would practice at his tonsorial parlors in San Francis- co, Helena, and finally Bozeman, Montana. He loved and took pride in his little sister, writing her frequent letters as she opened a new studio in Rome as well as funding her schooling, her Bos- ton studio, and her 1865 passage abroad before leaving her his whole bank account at his death. The text of one ad for his Hel- ena barber shop proudly likens his work to hers: "The work of the sister and that of the brother, may be said to be one and the same, with this slight exception, that in cutting a shapely 'phiz' [face] one has a knack in using the chisel while the other deftly applies the razor." For all that pride, Samuel would spend the next century as a foot- note to the sister whose career he helped fund. And now, an exhibition at the Tinworks in Bozeman borrows that image for the title of its new exhibition in three acts: "Chisel & Razor: The Artistic Legacies of Edmonia and Samuel Lewis." It is the first show to reunite them, assembled by curator Dr. Melissa Ragain, an art historian at Mon- tana State University and one of Tinworks' founding curators, whose catalogue essays piece the entwined histories back together from scattered and often incom- plete records. Much of that ar- chival groundwork was laid with her colleague Dr. Regina Gee and MSU graduate student Quest Dovky. MFA graduate students Naji Haska and Quinn Ward played important roles in creat- ing the physical exhibition. As Ragain puts it: "There is no Ed- monia without Samuel, no Samu- el without Edmonia." Act I, which opened on June 19th and will continue through Oc- tober 25, centers on Samuel Lewis's Bozeman, the years 1868 to 1896, during which he lived and made his home there. It features a recreation of the Italianate music room he built in his fashion- able home, complete with a beautifully ornate painting on the ceiling and a stained-glass window as well as a wall made of his home's original roof shingles. It also features contemporary piec- es by Sonya Clark, Edgar Arceneaux and Nate Young and the late Maud Sulter. Celebrated throughout is the tight-knit and vibrant community of Black settlers, some formerly enslaved and some freeborn, that settled in post-Civil War Bozeman. Act II, opening October 11 and running through April 4, 2027, focuses on Edmonia's world and ancient artistic influences, including Egyptian, Mediterranean, and Anishinaabe art, by imagining Edmonia undertaking a journey to visit Samuel's Bozeman home. Sadly, Edmonia was unable to make such a visit in her lifetime. by NICK MITCHELL Andrea Carlson, A HOLD, (2026), Image courtesy of artist Portrait of Andrea Carlson, Image courtesy of artist

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