Trailblazing sculptor, painter Artis Lane depicts beauty in every shade

From the moment her mother named her, Artis Lane’s future career path seemed destined.

My “other siblings were Carol, Norma, average names,” says Lane, now 95. “It proved to be prophetic.”

Prophetic indeed. Lane, who moved to Detroit as a young woman and settled here after meeting her first husband, now is one of the most renowned sculptors of her time. Once called “the artist to the stars,” she’s sculpted and painted everyone from former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and former first lady Michelle Obama to actors Cary Grant and Charlton Heston.

Her sculpture of abolitionist Sojourner Truth is the first in the U.S. Capitol that honors a Black woman. And her bronze bust of civil rights leader Rosa Parks, her longtime friend, is now in President Joe Biden’s Oval Office.

But Lane, who left Detroit to live in California for several decades before returning to be near family a couple of years ago, is humble about her success: “It was all pre-programmed from a higher level.”

Her art, meanwhile, is her own form of activism. She says beauty doesn’t have one skin tone or shade. She says she works on three levels of consciousness: portraits, social injustice and metaphysics.

“There’s that belief that blue-eye blondes have the world at their feet. And in metaphysics, that has nothing to do with it,” Lane says. “… I’ve found that as an artist I knew what beauty was.”

Chuck Duquet, whose Collected Detroit gallery represents Lane, calls her a trailblazer. He doesn’t think people realize how big of a contribution Lane has made to the art world.

“Artis Lane is probably one of the most prominent African American artists in the world today,” he says.

Art Historian Deborah Lubera Kawsky says she’s inspired by Lane every day.

“Not only the creative genius, but to have the mental and physical stamina to be working at this scale is just amazing,” Kawsky says.

Born in North Buxton, Ontario, a village established in the 19th century by freed Blacks, Lane spent part of her childhood in Ann Arbor. She created her first sculpture as a child while visiting her grandparents. A stream ran through their property and she found clay near its edges. Using a rag doll with a porcelain head as her model, she created a sculpture.

“That’s when I first knew I was going to be an artist,” Lane says.

But being a pioneer hasn’t been without obstacles. She remembers winning a ball in Canada as a teen after which she was supposed to have her portrait painted. The artist refused because she was Black. And Lane is believed to be the first Black woman enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, studying there in 1951. She received an honorary master of fine arts from Cranbrook last year.

A devout Christian Scientist, her faith plays a deep role in her work.

“God created man in God’s image. I wanted to express that,” she says.

Lane’s friendship with Parks, meanwhile, spanned decades. Parks spent winters with friends in California and the two often saw one another. Parks posed for Lane in Lane’s backyard for the bust that was in the National Portrait Gallery but is now in the Oval Office.

“Her presence was so positive,” Lane says. “That smile is so genuine.”

Lane’s latest sculpture, modeled after a well-known Hollywood star whom she met through the late actor Sidney Poitier and his wife, stands roughly 12 feet tall and will eventually be installed on the West Coast.

Still working nearly every day at Collected Detroit — though she limits her work in the studio to 2½ hours a day because it’s so physical — creating is “what keeps us alive,” she says with a laugh and wearing a chic pair of boots she got from her friend, the late actress Diahann Carroll. “We die with our boots on.”

mfeighan@detroitnews.com

Artis Lane

Age: 95

Occupation: Artist

Hometown: Detroit, though originally from North Buxton, Ontario

Family: Widowed; daughter Carol Lane McCoo and granddaughter Dawn McCoo

Why honored: For her trailblazing work as an artist.

Published
3:52 am UTC Jun. 3, 2022
Updated
3:52 am UTC Jun. 3, 2022