‘Negro History’ sculptor Hardison, 102, dies
SIN THE 1960s, artist Inge Hardison was best known own for a series of sculpted portraits titled “Negro Giants ants in History.” She couldouldl have easily done onee of herself.
Hardison, a sculptor, poet, actress and photographer, whose work chronicled both the triumph and tragedies of history, has died. She was 102.
With a series of bronze busts featuring the likenesses of Benjamin Banneker, Charles Drew, Lewis Latimer, and Garrett Morgan, Hardison immortalized some of the greatest figures in American and African-American history.
Though the sculpture project was probably her crowning achievement, it grew out of an art form that for her was a hobby.
“She was a renaissance woman, a force to be reckoned with,” said Hardison’s daughter, Yolande, 62, “She inspired a lot of people, and worked with a lot of people.”ple.”
Hardison, on, who lived ed Manhattan,an, died Marchch 23 after a long g battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
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in Inge HardisonHar was born in Portsmouth, Va.,V in 1914 and movedm to Brooklyn with her parents, whow fled the South to avoid Jim Crow segregation.t
After high school, she was bitten by the acting bug and landed the role of “Topsy,” the enslaved child in the 1936 Broadway production of “Sweet River,” George Abbott’s adaptation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Other Broadway appearances followed before she became an artist’s model, and later an artist.
Somewhere along the line, Hardison discovered clay, and with it made an indelible mark on the art world.
“Her whole message was to go with your creative instincts, and go with what feeds your soul,” Yolande said. “She was always on the spiritual side. She put a lot of stock in God. Her diaries are addressed to Him.”
They also fill several bookshelves of the Central Park West apartment Yolande shared with her mother.
Funeral services will be held 3 p.m. Saturday in Unity Funeral Chapel on Eighth Ave. in Harlem.