Augusta Savage was born February 29, 1892 in Green Cove Springs Florida. Savage was from a large family. Her father, a Methodist Minister, didn’t approve of her sculpting and did everything he could to stop her. Savage stated sculpting at a young age. She sculpted small objects using natural clay she found in her hometown. She would skip school, and got into a lot of trouble with her father. In the 1920’s Savage moved to New York, where she studied at cooper Union. She struggled financially, but the school didn’t charge a tuition and soon offered her money to pay for her living expenses.
In 1923, she applied to study in France. She was turned down because of her color. This helped encourage her to become a civil rights activist. She did eventually get to study in Paris. While in school she exchanged techniques and styles with other African-American artists and assisted artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis.. Savage was considered a leading artist in the Harlem…show more content… Her sculpture, The Pugilist, was her last sculpture before she moved to a farm away from the city, before passing away from cancer on March 26, 1962. Like many of her other sculptures, The Pugilist, is made of clay. “The Pugilist faces the world with its head tilted upward and arms folded ready to take whatever challenge life presents. The statue also expresses the way that Savage shaped her personality. The Pugilist has a positive mood that symbolizes a strong person.” (Agusta Savage - New Deal Art Museum) I like this piece because it is ‘ready to take on the world.’ Its strong.
Augusta Savage was a Portrait Sculptor during the Harlem Renaissance. Savage is an important person in history because, not only did she have all these people looking down on her because she was an African-American and a women, but because her father didn’t approve of her art. She continued to create her sculptures despite
