Who is augusta savage

Augusta Savage born Augusta Christine Fells; February 29, - March 27, , an African American sculptor, struggled to succeed as a sculptor despite barriers of race and sex.

She is known for her sculptures of W. She is considered part of the Harlem Renaissance arts and culture revival. Known For : African-American sculptor and teacher associated with the Harlem Renaissance who worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts.

She was the seventh of fourteen children. As a young child, she made figures out of clay, despite religious objections of her father, a Methodist minister. When she began school in West Palm Beach, a teacher responded to her clear talent by engaging her in teaching classes in clay modeling. At college, she earned money selling animal figures at a county fair. She married John T. Moore in , and their daughter, Irene Connie Moore, was born the next year, shortly before John died.

She married James Savage in , keeping his name even after their s divorce and her remarriage to Robert L. Poston in Poston died in In she won an award for her booth at the county fair in Palm Beach.

The fair's superintendent encouraged her to go to New York to study art, and she was able to enroll at Cooper Union, a college without tuition, in When she lost the caretaking job that covered her other expenses, the school sponsored her. A librarian found out about her financial problems, and arranged for her to sculpt a bust of African American leader, W. DuBois, for the th St. Commissions continued, including one for a bust of Marcus Garvey. During the Harlem Renaissance , Augusta Savage enjoyed growing success, though a rejection for a summer of study in Paris because of her race inspired her to get involved in politics as well as art.

When the Schomburg Center had a retrospective of her work in , only 19 pieces were located. Savage became reclusive in the early s, and died of cancer on March 26, , after spending her last year with her daughter in New York. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Skip to content Augusta Savage with her sculpture Realization, ca. Do you find this information helpful? A small donation would help us keep this accessible to all.

Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Foster, C. Augusta Savage The career of Augusta Savage was fostered by the climate of the Harlem Renaissance. During the s, she was well known in Harlem as a sculptor, art teacher, and community art program director. In Savage married John T. Moore, and the following year her only child, Irene, was born. Moore died several years after the birth of their daughter.

Around the widowed artist married James Savage, a carpenter whose surname she retained after their divorce during the early s. In , Savage married Robert L. Poston, her third and final husband, who was an associate of Marcus Garvey.

Poston died in Lack of encouragement from her family and the scarcity of local clay meant that Savage did not sculpt for almost four years. In a local potter gave her some clay from which she modeled a group of figures that she entered in the West Palm Beach County Fair. The figures were awarded a special prize and a ribbon of honor. Encouraged by her success, Savage moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where she hoped to support herself by sculpting portrait busts of prominent blacks in the community.

When that patronage did not materialize, Savage left her daughter in the care of her parents and moved to New York City. During the mid- s when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, Savage lived and worked in a small studio apartment where she earned a reputation as a portrait sculptor, completing busts of prominent personalities such as W.