Friday, January 31, 2014

Augusta Fells was born in Florida. She began to make sculptures as a child but was beat by her father whenever he found her sculptures because her father believed her sculptures were a sin, because he was a religious man and believed everything the Bible had. After her family moved to Palm Beach, And she sculpted a Virgin Mary, and once her father saw it he changed his mind about her sculptures and regretted what he did to her in the past. In 1907, she married John Moore and she ended up having a daughter with him which was named Irene. But a bit after her husband died and she decided to move back in with her parents. Her parents decided to help her raise her daughter. Later on she applied to Cooper union which was an Art School in New York City and she was got in on October 1921. During this time she married James Savage but they ended up getting divorced months later but she decided to keep his last name. In 1923 Augusta Savage applied for a summer program of art that was sponsored by the French government but they didnt let her in the program just cause she was black. Because of this she was really sad. After she completed her time in Copper the art school she decided to work to support her family but her dad ended up being paralyzed by a stroke he had. In 1923 Savage married Robert Lincoln Poston. Her husband died of pneumonia while he was in a ship. In 1925 Savage won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts which was located in Rome ;however, the scholarship covered only her tuition, and but she didnt have enough money to pay for the rest so she didn't even go. She returned to the United States in 1931. During the Great Depression it was really hard to sell art. But she didnt give up and in 1934 she became the first black artist to be elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. Then she decided to create a studio for arts and crafts in Harlem. She opened her studio to anyone who wanted to paint, draw, or sculpt and anything that had to do with art. One of her most famous pieces was called the Gamin. Savage died on 26 March 1962 in New York city.
This is one of Augusta Savage's best work it is called the Gamin which is a French word which means “Street Urchin.” this was believed to be inspired by