Augusta Fells Savage: Pioneering African-American Sculptor, Art Teacher, and Promoter of Black Artists

In 1939, a new art gallery opened in Harlem in New York City. It was called the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, and it was the brainchild of Augusta Fells Savage, a talented sculptor who had faced obstacles due to her sex and race at every turn. Savage was among the first African-American woman to open her own art gallery in America. She hoped her Salon would give black artists a place to exhibit their work, free from the prejudice that kept them — and her — out of the mainstream art world. "We do not ask any special favors as artists because of our race," she said to the 500 people who attended the gallery's opening. "We only want to present to you our works and ask you to judge them on their merits." (Wikipedia)

Augusta Fells Savage was born on February 29, 1892, in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She struggled to achieve her dreams against formidable odds to became one of the leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as an influential activist and arts educator. She was a leap-year baby, she noted, and "I've been leaping ever since!" 

"From the time I can first recall the rain falling on the red clay in Florida. I wanted to make things," she recalled. "When my brothers and sisters were making mud pies, I would be making ducks and chickens with the mud." But her father, a Methodist minister with a conservative interpretation of the Biblical prohibition against graven images, punished her for her creations: "My father licked me four or five times a week, and [he] almost whipped all the art out of me." Fortunately, she persevered, and her high school principal encouraged her artistic talents by allowing her to teach a clay modeling class. (Wikipedia)

Gamin by Augusta Savage

Savage decided to pursue her art by moving to New York City, where in 1921 she was accepted at the Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Science and Art. After completing her studies, Savage worked in steam laundries in Manhattan to support herself and her family while continuing to sculpt. She received her first commission, a bust of W.E.B. DuBois for the Harlem Library, which led to more commissions including busts of other black leaders such as Marcus Garvey and William Pickens. Her 1929 bust of a young black boy entitled Gamin, which was voted most popular in an exhibition at the time of 200 works by black artists, cemented Savage's reputation as an influential artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Today, Gamin is on permanent display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (Regenia Perry, Free Within Ourselves.)

In 1934, Savage became the first African-American artist elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. She established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem, open to anyone who wanted to learn to paint, draw, or sculpt. Among her young students were several who went on to become nationally-known artists including abstract painter Norman Lewis, figurative painter Jacob Lawrence, and portrait artist Gwendolyn Knight.

Unfortunately, little of Savage's work survives today. Because she couldn't afford bronze, she often had to make her sculptures out of plaster, most of which have crumbled over time. Other works, like The Harp, were destroyed because they could not be moved or stored, while some of her work has simply disappeared. In 1988, the Schomburg Center in Harlem held a retrospective of her work, but could only locate 19 pieces.

Throughout her career, Savage fought to help African American artists publicize their work. "She was keen on creating an infrastructure for black artists," says Wendy NE Ikemoto, curator at the New York Historical Society. "She put a lot of thought and energy into creating these intellectual spaces and networks for the work of black artists" (Perry).  She was instrumental, for example, in getting the Works Progress Administration to include black artists in its Federal Art Project. 

In addition to the students she fostered during the Harlem Renaissance, Savage devoted much of her later life to teaching children and summer art camps, mostly in Saugerties, New York. When she died of cancer in March 26, 1962, she was almost forgotten. Ultimately, her greatest wish was to inspire young artists: "I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting," she once said, "but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work."  

Some Sources:

* Wikipedia, "Augusta Fells Savage"

* Regenia A. Perry, Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in Association with Pomegranate Art Books, 1992. "Augusta Savage always knew she wanted to be an artist and moved to New York City in 1920 with a ​“burning desire” to ​“become a sculptor in six months.” She enrolled at the Cooper Union and in 1929 won a scholarship to travel to Paris and Rome. She returned to New York in the middle of the Depression and was instrumental in getting the Works Progress Administration to include black artists in its Federal Art Project. Savage was the first African American to be elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and later became the director of the Harlem Community Art Center. She believed that teaching others was far more important than creating art herself, and explained her motivation in an interview: ​“If I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work. No one could ask for more than that.” (Davis, Contributions of Black Women to America, 1982).

* https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=29003&fbclid=IwAR2fc5XuH19J-  About Augusta Savage, an amazing sculptor and teacher. 

* https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/08/augusta-savage-black-artist-new-york.

* https://dos.myflorida.com/cultural/programs/florida-artists-hall-of-fame/augusta-savage/