In 1937, artist Augusta Savage was appointed to erect a sculpture for the 1939 New York World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Flushing, Queens. She was one of only four women and the only African American woman artist to secure a commission for the exhibition.
At her Harlem studio, she created a majestic, 16-foot sculpture molded in plaster called Lift Every Voice and Sing, inspired by a hymn of the same name written by her friend, NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, in 1900.
As a tribute to the contributions Black people made collectively, the piece depicted a long arm that cradled twelve singers draped in choir robes, the folds of each garment accentuating their proud stances. The artwork was extraordinary, its detailing and exaggerated height seen as a powerful symbol of liberation.
However, the event’s officials noticed that the sculpture’s overall look and shape resembled strings on a harp, so they renamed Savage’s work “The Harp” without her permission.
In the face of the flagrant name change, the sculpture had become one of the most noted and photographed submissions at the fair, despite its presence alongside the work of world-renowned artists that included Salvador Dalí and Willem de Kooning—clear evidence of its remarkable craftsmanship and unique representation of unity, perseverance and faith. However, when the fair ended, Savage did not have the funds to cast the sculpture in bronze in order to preserve its integrity.
As a result, the piece was destroyed.
The history of the eventual fate of Savage’s Lift Every Voice and Sing is a clear representation of the challenges she faced, despite her acclaim and pivotal role in the art world. She wasn’t shut out because of a lack of talent but by financial constraints and socioeconomic barriers.
Savage was, in fact, a well-known artist, teacher and pioneer during the Harlem Renaissance. She opened doors (and held them open) for many Black creatives, even though most of her own work was lost or damaged beyond repair. Finally, a new documentary is celebrating her legacy and is examining how so much of her work and its crucial history was allowed to disappear over time.
Out now, Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute first installment of PBS’s flagship digital biography series, American Masters, tells Savage’s incredible story and how she persevered in her artistic aspirations despite the impossible obstacles she faced.
Narrated by curator and art historian Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D. along with actor Lorraine Toussaint (Law & Order, Orange is the New Black), they recite dramatic excerpts of Savage’s written work and provide much-needed insight into her life and career. It explores her opening the very first art gallery in the United States that was dedicated to exhibiting the work of Black artists in 1939, to founding numerous organizations that provided free art education. The film also shines a spotlight on her mentorship of many noteworthy artists which includes Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Selma Burke, Gwendolyn Knight, Kenneth B. Clark and Norman Lewis. She was also the first African American elected to the prestigious National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors (later renamed the National Association of Women Artists).
Although Savage was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, the relentless impact of racism, poverty and sexism nearly obliterated all records of her accomplishments. The dignified busts she’d create, for example (most were renditions of Black subjects), were often sculpted from clay or plaster because, despite her notoriety, she couldn’t secure the resources to cast and sustain them in bronze. About half of the approximately 160 pieces of sculpture she created couldn’t be preserved—reduced only to memories.
Searching for Augusta Savage explores the evidence that points to why most of Savage’s life and legacy were erased. In the film, Dr. Denise Murrell, Merryl H. and James S. Tisch, Curator at Large, and Associate Curator of 19th-and 20th-Century Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, provides insight into why Savage’s work is missing from most museum exhibits and collections. She speaks to the cultural relevance Savage’s work still has today.
“[In] the museum market, the art market, the galleries, the critical attention was given to male artists,” Murrell explains. She is also the curator of the Met’s exhibition, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, which opened late last month. It includes two pieces of Savage’s work.
According to a 2019 analysis by Williams College, of the more than 40,000 works of art in permanent collections, 18 of the most significant museums revealed that 85% of artists exhibited in the most visited U.S. museums are white and 87% are male. Only 0.5% of acquisitions were of the work of Black women.
Unfortunately, the lack of access remains a problem. “The issues that Augusta Savage navigated in her time, and the impact they had on the visibility surrounding her legacy, are problems that Black artists are still dealing with in the present day,” Hayes told Hyperallergic. “These are issues of visibility, of discrimination of racial inequality, financial limitation, and of sociocultural barriers. During Savage’s life and since, she faced sexism along with racism and what we call today misogynoir – the intersection of racism and misogyny that exists against Black women, specifically at the hands of Black men.”
It is for this reason why it’s so important to keep saying Augusta Savage’s name and share her legacy.
The Searching for Augusta Savage documentary can be viewed on the American Masters YouTube Channel, pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App.
