Wendy A. Grossman

Accounts of black personalities long lost to narratives of modernism are belatedly finding their way into the historical record, precipitated by the recent advent of scholarship and exhibitions dedicated to this recovery process. As a result, black artists, models, and performers who previously attracted little critical attention are slowly emerging from obscurity to command consideration in their own right. Among these newly recognized figures is the Guadeloupean dancer and model Adrienne Fidelin (1915-2004), whose short time in the spotlight of avant-garde activities in interwar Paris quickly faded into oblivion in the postwar years. With a life that weaves together a powerful tale of colonialism, migration, and the long-eclipsed stories of women of color in shaping transatlantic modernity, she is beginning to attract the attention she merits. In Denise Murrell’s catalogue essay for Posing Modernity, her groundbreaking exhibition that helped generate a resurgence of interest in the history of the black model in Western art, she pointedly observes that “in the absence of narratives that animate viewer curiosity and interest, [black figures] become invisible even while in plain view” ( Posing 3). Fidelin’s story is a quintessential case in point. Despite her ubiquitous visual presence illustrating various accounts of surrealism, her role as muse animating an extensive body of work by her partner Man Ray, and her position as the first black model to feature in a major American fashion magazine, the lack of curiosity about her story has resulted in her remaining largely invisible in the historical record. Even as images of this striking woman proliferate on the internet today (frequently undated, uncaptioned, or misidentified), little effort has been taken to excavate the historical record to illuminate her story and learn about the person behind the persona.