Description:

Augusta Christine Fells Savage
(African American; 1892 - 1962)
Gamin
Plaster
c. 1930. Inscribed and signed.

Born in Green Cove Springs, Florida in 1892, Augusta Savage began molding clay at an early age. Despite great opposition from her family, Savage was determined to pursue a career in the arts as a sculptor. She moved to New York to study sculpture at the Cooper Union School of Art, where she was soon commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois and other African American leaders including Marcus Garvey. In 1924 the sculpture of her nephew, Gamin, won the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which gave her the opportunity to study in Paris for one year.

After returning home from Europe, Savage shared her art and experiences by establishing the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts to provide adult art education. She also later became the first director of the Harlem Community Arts Center, where she played a crucial role in the development of young African American artists. This art center became a model for others across the country, including Chicago's Southside Community Art Center.

From 1936-1937, Savage was a project supervisor for the WPA Federal Arts Project. She left this postion to work on a commission for the 1939 New York World's Fair, a monumental sculpture called "Lift Every Voice and Sing" or "The Harp". It stood over 16 feet tall and was the most popular and most photographed work of the fair. Sadly, she lacked the funds necessary to get it cast in bronze or moved and stored, and it was destroyed. After this great disappointment, Augusta Savage lived out her remaining years in relative anonymity focusing instead on family and writing.

Savage's sculptural focus was the human figure, predominantly children and portraits of friends. She worked in plaster painted to resemble bronze. Though her art and influence within the art community is well documented, the location of much of her work is unknown.

Gamin is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution.

9" H.

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May 30, 2013 1:00 PM EDT
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