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Augusta Savage
1892–1962
BirthplaceGreen Cove Springs, Florida
Death placeNew York, New York
Biography
Augusta Savage was born in 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida, into a large family with fourteen children. She began sculpting in her early twenties, winning a top prize at the West Palm Beach County Fair in 1919. With hopes of supporting herself with her art, she moved to Jacksonville, Florida, but found limited patronage there. In 1921 she moved to New York City and enrolled in the Cooper Union School of Art, graduating in 1923.
Savage arrived in New York as the Harlem Renaissance was flourishing. In 1923, when she was awarded a scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Art in Paris, the American selection committee retracted the offer because of Savage’s race, a decision she protested, including in a letter published in a New York newspaper. Savage developed an artistic practice as a portrait sculptor, creating busts of prominent figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940). In 1929, she created a portrait bust of her young nephew Ellis Ford, which she titled Gamin (TF TCA2023.2). That same year, Savage earned a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study abroad, and in September she moved to Paris. While there she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Grand Palais. A second Rosenwald Fellowship extended her time in Paris for an additional year.
Upon returning to New York City in 1932, Savage founded the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. She became a well-known, respected educator, investing in the community and operating a successful business. She accepted an invitation to lead the Harlem Community Art Center, a Works Progress Administration initiative that became a model for similar art centers across the country. In 1937, the New York World’s Fair commissioned a sculpture from her devoted to the musical contributions of African Americans, to be displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair. She spent the next two years working on The Harp, one of her best-known works, which was unfortunately destroyed when the fair closed due to the lack of necessary funds either to cast the sculpture in bronze or to store the plaster original.
In the years following the World’s Fair and the beginning of World War II, both art centers led by Savage were shuttered due to the war effort. In 1939 she opened the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, the first gallery in the country dedicated to exhibiting the work of African American artists. When this gallery closed, she relocated to Saugerties, New York, a small town in the Catskills, where she continued teaching and making art. She returned to New York City just before her death in 1962.
Savage arrived in New York as the Harlem Renaissance was flourishing. In 1923, when she was awarded a scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Art in Paris, the American selection committee retracted the offer because of Savage’s race, a decision she protested, including in a letter published in a New York newspaper. Savage developed an artistic practice as a portrait sculptor, creating busts of prominent figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940). In 1929, she created a portrait bust of her young nephew Ellis Ford, which she titled Gamin (TF TCA2023.2). That same year, Savage earned a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study abroad, and in September she moved to Paris. While there she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Grand Palais. A second Rosenwald Fellowship extended her time in Paris for an additional year.
Upon returning to New York City in 1932, Savage founded the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. She became a well-known, respected educator, investing in the community and operating a successful business. She accepted an invitation to lead the Harlem Community Art Center, a Works Progress Administration initiative that became a model for similar art centers across the country. In 1937, the New York World’s Fair commissioned a sculpture from her devoted to the musical contributions of African Americans, to be displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair. She spent the next two years working on The Harp, one of her best-known works, which was unfortunately destroyed when the fair closed due to the lack of necessary funds either to cast the sculpture in bronze or to store the plaster original.
In the years following the World’s Fair and the beginning of World War II, both art centers led by Savage were shuttered due to the war effort. In 1939 she opened the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, the first gallery in the country dedicated to exhibiting the work of African American artists. When this gallery closed, she relocated to Saugerties, New York, a small town in the Catskills, where she continued teaching and making art. She returned to New York City just before her death in 1962.