Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is an American and French visual artist, sculptor, novelist, and poet. After becoming established as a sculptor and poet, Chase-Riboud gained widespread recognition as an author for her novel Sally Hemings (1979). It earned the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction, and became an international success. Chase-Riboud's novel about Sally Hemings generated discussion about the likely relationship between the young enslaved woman and her master, Thomas Jefferson, who became president of the United States. Mainline historians rejected Chase-Riboud's portrayal and persuaded CBS not to produce a planned TV mini-series adapted from the novel. Following DNA analysis of descendants in 1998, the Jefferson-Hemings relationship is widely accepted by historians as fact, including those who had objected before. From September 2024 to January 2025, the solo exhibition Barbara Chase-Riboud: Everytime A Knot is Undone, A God is Released showcased her sculpture, drawing and poetry from 1958 to the present in eight major institutions in Paris, France – Musée d’Orsay, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Musée du Louvre, Philharmonie de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Musée du Quai...