Sisters, 1972, c.
Barbara Johnson Zuber was born in Philadelphia in 1926 and raised in Harlem, New York. Zuber was recognized as the first woman to graduate from Yale’s School of Fine Arts. Her work was influenced by three experiences. Growing up during the Harlem Renaissance, her involvement in civil rights activism alongside her husband, and her childhood visits to see her uncle who was a vice-provost of Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Zuber’s art has been showcased nationally. She won first prize at the Ossining Women’s Club Annual Art Show and Second Prize at the Hunt’s Manufacturing Company. Zuber has participated in numerous exhibitions, including 15 Afro-American Women at North Carolina A&T State University, SANKOFA: Celebrating 25 Years of Black Dimensions in Art in Albany, New York, and Transformation: An Exhibition to Honor Black. In addition to painting, she illustrated children’s books and created works that were commissioned by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.