HISTORY

Vintage Times-Union: Pioneering sculptor Augusta Savage grew up in Green Cove Springs

Florida Times-Union

A 1930s Life magazine photo shows sculptor Augusta Savage, who was included in an article about Black artists of the time. The Green Cove Springs native died in 1962.

Sculptor Augusta Savage moved to New York in 1921 after which she became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, studied art in Europe, gained renown as an artist and created numerous gorgeous pieces of art, including a piece that was a hit at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Her journey began, though, in small-town Green Cove Springs where she was born in 1892 and discovered a talent for sculpture despite the strong disapproval of her father, a minister.

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Augusta Savage created "The Harp" for the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Inspired by Jacksonville native James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," it was envisioned that "The Harp" would stand as a landmark to the anthem for generations to come. The original sculpture was cast in plaster and painted to look like stone. After the World's Fair, there was no money to have it cast, so it was destroyed.

She eventually moved to Jacksonville to begin her career as a sculptor, doing portrait busts of prominent Black citizens. Two years later she made the jump to New York.

Her life wasn't easy, despite her talent. "As a Black woman artist from the South in the early years of the 20th century, she faced obstacle after obstacle: poverty, sexism, racism,” wrote Holly Keris, chief curator at Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens for an exhibition of her work in 2018 and 2019.

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Augusta Savage leans against her sculpture "Realization" in 1938.

The Cummer has in its collection two of her works, "Gamin" and "Diving Boy." The latter was one of 60 pieces Ninah Cummer bequeathed to the museum for its original collection.

Savage's best-known work was commissioned for the 1939 World's Fair — "The Harp," a16-foot-tall sculpture inspired by Jacksonville native James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." It left fair visitors entranced.

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In this 2011 photo, visitors to the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens pass by Augusta Savage's "The Diving Boy," which was one of the original pieces installed at the museum by founder Ninah Cummer.

"Cast in plaster and finished to resemble black basalt, 'The Harp' was exhibited in the court of the Contemporary Arts building where it received much acclaim," the Smithsonian American Art Museum wrote. "The sculpture depicted a group of 12 stylized Black singers in graduated heights that symbolized the strings of the harp. The sounding board was formed by the hand and arm of God, and a kneeling man holding music represented the foot pedal."

The work was impressive but had a sad end: Savage didn't have the money to cast it in bronze or to move and store it. So along with other temporary installations, it was destroyed after the fair.