# @drawingcenter on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BTJqhmyBOtZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/16047116-drawingcenter-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/b8d4b8dd17.jpg
- **Posted:** 2017-04-21T14:37:29.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Drawing Center (@drawingcenter) — https://gondola.cc/drawingcenter

## Caption

Artists have a variety of methods to make their mark. Every Friday we will share a photograph of an #ArtistInAction.

Born in 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida, Augusta Christine Fells, later known as Augusta Savage, started sculpting with local florida clay and grew up to be a key sculptor during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career truly began in 1919, when she won awards for a piece entered into the West Palm Beach County Fair. Piggybacking on this success, Savage originally tried to establish a career in Jacksonville, Florida, hoping that wealthy black patrons might be interested in commissioning portrait busts. When she had trouble securing work as a sculptor in Jacksonville, she moved to New York, where she attended the Cooper Union and began to grow in reputation as a skilled portrait artist known in particular for her work on busts for figures like Marcus Garvey, William Pickens, Sr., and W.E.B. Du Bois. Among her most famous works is "The Harp", a piece commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s fair which was to embody the contributions of African Americans to music. The harp-shaped choir, like much of Savage’s work, shows the skill and fluidity of the artist’s work with clay, and was her last major commission. At the height of her career, Savage was the first African American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the director of the Harlem Community Center, and received awards to travel to Europe to sculpt.

#AugustaSavage

Image: Augusta Savage, with one of her sculptures, 1938. (Archives of American Art)

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## Tags

artistinaction, augustasavage

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