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Augusta C. Savage. By: Chiquita Woods. Growing Up. I was born in Green Cove, Florida on February 29,1892, (though some dates give me 1900). I am the seventh of 14 children born to Edward and Cornelia Fells. Five of my siblings did not live to maturity.
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Augusta C. Savage By: Chiquita Woods
Growing Up • I was born in Green Cove, Florida on February 29,1892, (though some dates give me 1900). • I am the seventh of 14 children born to Edward and Cornelia Fells. • Five of my siblings did not live to maturity.
My town had clay soil, which made it a thriving brick making area. • I loved the clay from my earliest years, often choosing to slip off to the clay pits to model ducks and birds instead of going to school. • The habit infuriated my father, a fundamentalist preacher with a profound belief that whipping would prevent me from “fashioning graven images.”
Whipping did not stop me from modeling my clay birds, I produced dozens of my clay birds during my childhood years. • In 1907 I married John Moore, and gave birth to my only child, Irene, in 1908. • Moore died a couple of years later, so me being a teenager, took my child and my clay birds and went back to my parents. • I begged a pailful of clay from the owner and modeled a little statue of that Virgin Mary for my over-strict father. • This persuaded the school board to appoint me to teach modeling during my senior year, at a “salary” of one dollar per day.
A Passport to Tomorrow • By now I had begun to broaden my repertoire to include all sorts of farm animals. • George Currie, the superintendent of an upcoming county fair gave me a booth at the fair, where my animals became so popular that I won a $25 prize. I also earned $175-my first real sum money.
Success Close • My testing time came in 1923, when a committee of distinguished American artists publicized an upcoming summer sculpting to be held outside France. • At first the committee claimed that the problem lay in my lack of references. • However, the true reason soon revealed itself. • Apparently two Alabama winners of the scholarship had refused to travel or room with a “colored” girl.
With years of practice born of whippings and poverty I fought grimly for my rights. • “How am I to compete with other American artists if am not given the same opportunity?” I demanded, in a May 20, 1923 letter to New York World. • At best, the result was only partial victory. The ban was upheld. • Then president of the National Sculpture Society, invited me to study privately with him that summer, at his studio on Long Island.
The Tragic Decade • In October of 1923 I married Robert Poston, an official of black nationalist Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. • The only one of my three marriages that brought me any happiness. • Just five months after the wedding Poston died a mysterious death aboard a steamship returning to Liberia. • In 1925, I received a working scholarship to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy.
In 1928, my brother Fred died while rescuing Florida flood victims. • Then, the following year my father died, leaving the responsibility of his funeral expenses for me to shoulder. • Finally defeated, I turned my back on my dreams of Rome to take care of my family. • “The Harp” was a work that symbolized a universal tenderness found only in artists who have been strengthen by lifelong burdens, as I had been. • With the advent of 1960s, I contracted cancer, so I moved back to New York to live out my final months with my daughter. • The end came on March 26, 1963, when she died in Abraham Jacobi Hospital.
