A Coin with a Story: Selma Burke, African-American Sculptor and Educator

Selma Burke with her bas relief portrait of FDR

Selma Burke's sculpted portrait of FDR is on the United States dime. That's right. A coin with a story. I had no idea.

Selma Burke's story begins in Mooresville, North Carolina, where she was born in 1900.  I'm not sure if Mooresville remembers her or not, but she remembered Mooresville.  Young Selma attended a one-room segregated schoolhouse, where her curiosity was nurtured. 

Those old segregated schools, where talent was nurtured! They were the foundation of black achievement. I think African American youngsters learned more in these schools than in integrated ones later on, where racism flourished and the history taught was white history. Still is. The African American teachers in the segregated schools, many of whom lost their jobs with integration, are, indeed, the real heroes of the black experience. They shared their own history of struggle and achievement. They bolstered their students' dreams. Augusta Savage recalled that her high school principal encouraged her artistic talents by allowing her to teach a clay modeling class.  (Wikipedia)

It was the same for Selma Burke, who found her purpose in life at a young age. She played in a riverbed of clay near her home. She would later describe the feeling of squeezing the clay through her fingers as her first encounter with sculpture. "It was here in 1907 that I discovered me," she said.  Her little schoolhouse encouraged the discovery. She continued her education at Winston-Salem College and at nursing school, but art was her first love and true calling. 

Like other African-American artists and writers of the time, Burke's dedication to her art motivated her to move to New York City in her mid-twenties. It was an exciting time, the age of the Harlem Renaissance, that iconic platform of artistic expression, community and freedom that catapulted many talented African Americans into acceptance and recognition. The Harlem Renaissance nurtured a generation of black talent that burst upon the American landscape even as segregation and racism flourished.  

This is when Burke's life intersected with sculptor Augusta Savage,10 years her senior. Burke began teaching at the Harlem Community Arts Center, then under the leadership of Savage. Selma also worked for FDR's Work Progress Administration on the Federal Art Project, another opportunity made possible by Savage, who had worked so hard to ensure black artists were included. 

Burke continued her work on trips to Europe in the late 1930s. It was a pilgrimage that many African American artists, including her mentor Augusta Savage, took at some point in their developing careers. One of Burke's significant works from this period is "Frau Keller (1937), a portrait of a German-Jewish woman in response to the rising Nazi threat. Imagine that conjun

ction. Did Frau Keller survive the holocaust?

Mother and Child, 1950

Burke returned to New York about 1939. I like to imagine that she attended the opening of Augusta Savage's brilliant Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, such an exciting event for all black artists. The importance of displaying and promoting public awareness of this art cannot be overstated, a major contribution to the building of an inclusive American culture. 

Like Savage, Burke was also committed to teaching art to others, and in 1946 she established the Selma Burke Art School in New York.  She later opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Just think of the generations of African-American artists who stand on the shoulders of pioneers like Savage and Burke. 

Many of Burke's sculptures can be seen today in various museums, including the Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, the Hill House Center in Pittsburgh, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Maybe the Toledo Museum of Art will add a Burke sculpture to its permanent collection one day.

Some Sources

1.  https://www.blackhistory.com/2019/04/selma-burkes-sculptor-franklin-d-roosevelt-us-dime.html?
 
2. Selma Hortense Burke, Wikipedia.

3.https://mymodernmet.com/bisa-butler-contemporary-quilting/?fbclid=IwAR0m-

Discovered another African-American woman sculptor after posting this, via Rita Sjoborn, Celebration of Female Artists: Elizabeth Catlett (born in Washington, DC, 1915-1992)   Rita wrote: "In a career spanning more than 70 years, Elizabeth Catlett has created sculptures that celebrate the heroic strength and endurance of African-American and Mexican working-class women. With simple, clear shapes she evokes both the physical and spiritual essence of her subjects. Her hardy laborers and nurturing mothers radiate both power and a timeless dignity and calm. Whether working in wood, stone, bronze, or clay, Catlett reveals an extraordinary technical virtuosity, a natural ability to meld her curving female forms with the grain, whorls, color, or luster of her chosen medium. The beauty of her subjects is matched by the beauty she reveals in her sculptural materials."   This link is a good bio of Catlett. Her work is skillful and amazing. http://www.artnet.com/artists/elizabeth-catlett/