Biography
After being denied a scholarship on account of her skin color by the American Committee of Eminent American Architects, Paints, and Sculptors in 1923, Augusta Savage was determined to pursue funding elsewhere. At the age of 37 in 1929, she was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship to study and create sculpture in Paris, France. She was one of the first to be offered a fellowship in the Fine Arts because of her exceptional skill.
Before being awarded a fellowship, Savage had expeditiously completed a degree at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.1 Another Rosenwald fellow, Mildred Blount, attended Cooper Union alongside Savage.
The Rosenwald Committee initially awarded Savage $1,500 to travel abroad between May 1929 and May 1930. One year later, Savage's fellowship was renewed when the committee offered her an additional $1,800 to stay in Paris for another year.
In a letter to George R. Arthur of the Rosenwald Committee written on June 1930, Savage insisted on the growing originality of her work. While abroad, she had the opportunity to work alone and invite critics to give her feedback as she desired. She no longer needed the training of the “masters.” Thus, it is during the period of her Rosenwald fellowship that Savage began to hone her individual technique. T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, scholar of African American and Diaspora Studies, elaborates that “[i]n Paris, Savage experimented with modern subjects and themes while drawing inspiration from ancient myths and legends. Her Divinité nègre, completed around 1930, represents a modern design imbued at once with an African feel and a spirituality drawn from the femininity that [George R.] Arthur supposed Savage to feel as a ’Negro woman’ artist when composing her works."2 While in Paris, Savage’s work was accepted to the Salon d’Automne in 1930 and the Salon Printemps in 1931.
In a 1936 report in which Savage reflected on her fellowship, she shares that:
“I feel that the very fact of a Negro’s having won a Rosenwald scholarship serves to encourage other Negro artists, for many of the benefits I have received and the acclaim my work has brought has been due to the fact of my having received such a scholarship. One example of this is the fact that I am the only Negro member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.”
Savage assured that young artists of color would benefit from her experience in Paris and her tenure as a Rosenwald fellow. Upon returning to New York City, she started the Harlem Community Art Center, where she hired another Rosenwald fellow, Selma Burke, to teach workshops.3 In an interview with T. R. Poston of The Metropolitan magazine, Savage states: “Life is fleeting, Art is eternal.” Such sentiments fueled her life’s work and legacy.
After her fellowship, Savage became the first African American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1934 as a result of her dedication and persistence. She went on to create pieces for the New York World Fair in 1935 and in 1939, work which symbolized African Americans' contribution to the world of music.
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1. T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Paris between the Two World Wars (New York: State University of New York Press, 2015), 133.↩
2. Sharpley-Whiting, Bricktop's Paris, 137.↩
3. Sharpley-Whiting, Bricktop's Paris, 121.↩