Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage (1892-1962) was an American sculptor. She made clay sculptures and was involved in the Harlem Renaissance.[1]
Augusta Savage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Augusta Christine Fells 29 February 1892 |
| Died | 26 March 1962 (aged 70) New York, New York |
| Known for | Sculpture |
Savage was born on February 29, 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister. As a young woman she moved to Harlem. In 1921 she began studying art at the Cooper Union School of Art.[2] Her tuition was paid by a scholarship she earned because of her talent. Around that time Savage also won a place in a summer class at the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France. She travelled to France but when the teachers at the school saw Savage was black they told her she could not attend.[1]
Savage returned to New York and began creating clay busts of important black people. She made portraits of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey.[3] In 1929 she made a portrait of her nephew and titled it Gamin. Many people admired this sculpture. It helped her win awards to study in Paris and to travel in Europe.[1]
In 1937 Savage made the sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing for the 1939 New York World's Fair.[4]
In 1938 the Works Progress Administration started the Harlem Community Art Center. Savage was the director.[5]
Savage died on March 26, 1962 in New York City.[2]
Savage was married three times and had one child.[1]
Savage's work is in the Studio Museum in Harlem,[6] the Cleveland Museum of Art,[7] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[3] and the New-York Historical Society.[8] In 2019 the New-York Historical Society held a retrospective exhibition of her work. It was called Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman.[9] It had more than 50 items of her art on display.[10]
References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ignotofsky, Rachel (2019). Women in Art: 50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World. Ten Speed Press. pp. 48-49. ISBN 978-0399580437.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Foster, Catherine (15 August 2007). "Augusta Savage (1892-1962)". Blackpast.org. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Augusta Savage". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ León, Concepción de (30 March 2021). "The Black Woman Artist Who Crafted a Life She Was Told She Couldn't Have". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ "Harlem Community Art Center". Mapping the African American Past. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ "Bust of Dr. William Pickens, Sr". The Studio Museum in Harlem. 31 August 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ "Gamin". Cleveland Museum of Art. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ "Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp)". New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ↑ "Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman". New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ↑ "The New-York Historical Society Hosts Augusta Savage A'25 Retrospective". The Cooper Union. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
Other websites
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Media related to Augusta Savage at Wikimedia Commons- Augusta Savage sculpting, in an excerpt from A Study of Negro Artists video
- Augusta Savage STORYTIME! African-American Harlem Renaissance Artist
- Activist Art on a World Stage
