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Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage
	Augusta Savage
Born	Augusta Christine Fells; February 29, 1892; Green Cove Springs, Florida
Died	March 27, 1962 (aged 70); New York
Nationality	American
Education	Cooper Union, Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Known for	Art
Notable work	Gamin; W.E.B Dubois; Lift Every Voice and Sing
Movement	Harlem Renaissance
Patron(s)	Teachers from Florida A&M,; Julius Rosenwald Fund

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Avel de Knight (born Avel C. de Knight; 1921 – 1995) was an African-American painter, educator and art critic. Differing birth dates are cited as 1923, 1925, 1931, and 1933.^[2]

Early life and education

Avel De Knight was born in New York to parents from Puerto Rico and Barbados. He enrolled in and attended the Pratt Institute in New York City after which he served in a segregated United States Army unit in World War II. After the war ended, under the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, and continued his art studies at the Grand Chaumière, and the Académie Julian, also in Paris.^[2]

Later work

Savage returned to the United States in 1931, energized from her studies and achievements. The Great Depression had almost stopped art sales. She pushed on, and in 1934 became the first African-American artist to be elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. She then launched the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, located in a basement on West 143rd Street in Harlem. She opened her studio to anyone who wanted to paint, draw, or sculpt. Her many young students included the future nationally-known artists Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and Gwendolyn Knight. Another student was the sociologist Kenneth B. Clark whose later research contributed to the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that ruled school segregation unconstitutional. Her school evolved into the Harlem Community Art Center; 1500 people of all ages and abilities participated in her workshops, learning from her multi-cultural staff, and showing work around New York City. Funds from the Works Progress Administration helped, but old struggles of discrimination were revived between Savage and WPA officials who objected to her having a leadership role.^[3]

Savage received a commission from the 1939 New York World's Fair; she created Lift Every Voice and Sing (also known as "The Harp"), inspired by the song by James Weldon and Rosamond Johnson. The 16-foot-tall plaster sculpture was the most popular and most photographed work at the fair; small metal souvenir copies were sold, and many postcards of the piece were purchased. The work reinterpreted the musical instrument to feature 12 singing African-American youth in graduated heights as its strings, with the harp's sounding board transformed into an arm and a hand. In the front, a kneeling young man offered music in his hands.^[4] Savage did not have funds to have it cast in bronze or to move and store it. Like other temporary installations, the sculpture was destroyed at the close of the fair.^[4]

Augusta Savage working on a sculpture.jpg

Savage opened two galleries whose shows were well attended and well reviewed, but few sales resulted and the galleries closed. Deeply depressed by the financial struggle, in the 1940s Savage moved to a farmhouse in Saugerties, New York. While in Saugerties, she established close ties with her neighbors and welcomed family and friends from New York City to her rural home. Savage cultivated a garden and sold pigeons, chickens, and eggs. The K-B Products Corporation, the world's largest growers of mushrooms at that time, employed Savage as a laboratory assistant in the company's cancer research facility. She acquired a car and learned to drive to enable her commute. Herman K. Knaust, director of the laboratory, encouraged Savage to pursue her artistic career and provided her with art supplies. Savage created and taught art and sculpted friends and neighbors. Her last commissioned work was for Knaust and was that of the American journalist and author Poultney Bigelow, whose father, John, was U.S. Minister to France during the Civil War. Her few neighbors said that she was always making something with her hands.^[5]

Legacy

The Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, a Baltimore, Maryland public high school, is named in her honor.

In 2001 her home and studio in Saugerties, New York were listed on the New York State and National Register of Historic Places as the Augusta Savage House and Studio. It is the most significant surviving site associated with the productive life of this renowned artist, teacher, and activist. Her home has been restored to evoke the period when she lived there, and serves to interpret her life and creative vision.^[6]

In 2007 the City of Green Cove Springs, Florida nominated her to the Florida Artist Hall of Fame; she was inducted the Spring of 2008. Today at the actual location of her birth, there is a Community Center named in her honor.

A biography of Augusta Savage intended for younger readers has been written by Alan Schroeder. In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage^[7] was released in September 2009 by Lee and Low, a New York publishing company.

The papers of Augusta Savage are available at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at New York Public Library.^[2]

Works

Busts of W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey
Gamin
The Tom Tom
The Abstract Madonna
Envy
A Woman of Martinique
Lift Every Voice and Sing (also known as The Harp)^[8]
Sculptural interpretation of Negro Music^[9]
Gwendolyn Knight, 1934-35^[10]

Individual exhibitions

Grande Chaumiere, Paris, 1929
Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1930
Argent Galleries, New York and Art Anderson Gallery, New York, 1932
Argent Galleries, New York and New York World's Fair, 1939
New York Public Library, 1988^[11]

Selected group exhibitions

Argent Galleries, New York, 1934
Argent Galleries, New York, 1938
American Negro Exposition, Tanner Art Galleries, Chicago, 1940
Newark Museum, New Jersey, 1990
Three Generations of African-American Women Sculptors, Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, Philadelphia, 1996^[11]

References

^ Harris-Lopez, Janet Witalec, project ed. ; foreword by Trudier (2003). Harlem renaissance (1 ed.). Detroit (Mich.): Gale. p. 551. ISBN 978-0787666187.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Avel De Knight papers, 1947-2003, bulk 1957-1968". Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
^ AHOAAA p. 174.
^ ^a ^b "Augusta Savage". Biography. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
^ AHOAAA, p. 179.
^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ Schroeder, Alan (2014). In her hands: the story of sculptor augusta savage. Place of publication not identified: Lee & Low Books. ISBN 978-1600609893.
^ "Lift Every Voice and Sing, (White metal cast with black patina)". Building on the Legacy: African American Art from the Permanent Collection. Muscarelle Museum of Art. 2017–2018. Retrieved 20 Jun 2018.
^ Bontemps, pp. 141–142
^ "Collections - SAM - Seattle Art Museum". www1.seattleartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
^ ^a ^b Hillstrom, Laurie Collier; Hillstrom, Kevin (1999). Contemporary women artists. Detroit: St. James Press.

External links

Augusta Savage at Find a Grave

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Augusta}} [[Category:African-American sculptors]] [[Category:American women sculptors]] [[Category:1892 births]] [[Category:1962 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière]] [[Category:Cooper Union alumni]] [[Category:People from Green Cove Springs, Florida]] [[Category:Sculptors from Florida]] [[Category:20th-century American sculptors]] [[Category:Harlem Renaissance]] [[Category:Federal Art Project artists]] [[Category:20th-century American women artists]] [[Category:1939 New York World's Fair artists]] [[Category:National Association of Women Artists members]]

[1] Harris-Lopez, Janet Witalec, project ed. ; foreword by Trudier (2003). Harlem renaissance (1 ed.). Detroit (Mich.): Gale. p. 551. ISBN 978-0787666187.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[CFrederick-2] "Avel De Knight papers, 1947-2003, bulk 1957-1968". Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

[3] AHOAAA p. 174.

[Biography.com-4] "Augusta Savage". Biography. Retrieved 2017-03-11.

[5] AHOAAA, p. 179.

[nris-6] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.

[7] Schroeder, Alan (2014). In her hands: the story of sculptor augusta savage. Place of publication not identified: Lee & Low Books. ISBN 978-1600609893.

[Lift_Every_Voice_and_Sing-8] "Lift Every Voice and Sing, (White metal cast with black patina)". Building on the Legacy: African American Art from the Permanent Collection. Muscarelle Museum of Art. 2017–2018. Retrieved 20 Jun 2018.

[9] Bontemps, pp. 141–142

[10] "Collections - SAM - Seattle Art Museum". www1.seattleartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-02-17.

[:0-11] Hillstrom, Laurie Collier; Hillstrom, Kevin (1999). Contemporary women artists. Detroit: St. James Press.

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