Augusta Savage (1892–1962), as a respected sculptor and arts educator, made a significant impact by mentoring other emerging creatives. Notable individuals who benefited from her free training include Romare Bearden, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Selma Burke, Norman Lewis, and Kenneth B. Clark.
Savage’s most renowned sculpture, “Life Every Voice and Sing,” was created for the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing, New York. It was a 16-foot masterpiece depicting 12 Black children in a stance resembling a harp. The piece was inspired by the poem of Savage’s close Harlem Renaissance friend James Weldon Johnson. His brother Rosamund Johnson then set the poem to music, becoming one of the most meaningful anthems for African Americans.
At a recent screening of the PBS documentary “Searching for Augusta Savage,” Jeffreen M. Hayes, curator of the 2019 “Augusta Savage Renaissance Woman” exhibition, spoke about the sculptor’s World Fair work.
“Augusta Savage was the only African-American commission to create an exhibit for the1939,” said Hayes, an art historian with a PhD and executive director of Threewalls, a Chicago-based arts collaborative. “It was the most popular piece of art in the 1939 World’s Fair. After this highly publicized display at the World’s Fair, it was just dismantled and discarded.”
“Searching for Augusta Savage” is a 22-minute film co-executive produced, written, and directed by Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley through their company Audacious Women, LLC, in association with American Masters Pictures and Black Public Media.
This production is the lead film for American Masters Shorts, a new digital series from PBS’ flagship biography series. Viewers will see an overview of Savage’s contribution to American art and her advocacy for works by African American artists to be included in the mainstream.
Hayes narrates the film, and Screen Actors Guild, Critics Choice, and NAACP Image Award-winner Lorraine Toussaint is featured as the voice of Augusta Savage.
The writing from Mangin and Rattley is clear, with insightful content about Savage, her success in opening museums, and her fundraising capabilities. Viewers can feel the sculptor’s focused intent.
“The way she was navigating her career, I began to really think about her as a ‘race woman,’” narrator Hayes said. “Putting the Black body and the Black experience at the center, creating a deeper understanding of race in daily life.”
Savage experienced various forms of rejection. When her widely accepted sculpture “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was destroyed, she did what many Black women have done: picked herself up and continued moving forward. She powered through. She never let it stop, it just made her stronger.
“She was a way maker. She was an artist and artist advocate, an artist educator, and an activist,” said Tammi Lawson, curator of the Art & Artifacts Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, as Hayes explained in the film.
Today, it is thought that 70 of Savage’s approximately 160 works of art are lost or missing. With the production of this film, Hayes, Mangin, and Rattley will continue their work to bring more of Augusta Savage to the rest of us.