Thursday, February 3, 2011

Augusta Savage- Feb 4




Augusta Savage was a sculptor originally from Florida who moved to Harlem during the Great Migration. Her father, a Methodist preacher was against her art calling it "pagan." Augusta didn't listen to her father, thankfully. Like many African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance she was greeted with racism in the form of rejection by a European art school. From this her art became political. She got funding from the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship. She was commissioned to sculpt busts of W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey. She was one of four women and the only African American woman whose art was featured at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Sadly,due to her financial situation much of her work was never casted into metal and ultimately destroyed. Augusta Savage was not only a talented sculptor,and a spirited teacher. She was an activist. She was a force to be reckoned with. She won't be forgotten.

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