Augusta Savage

*1892 ✝1962 | USA

Determined to become a sculptress, Augusta Christine Fells arrived in New York in 1921 with 5 dollars in hand. Alongside her job as an apartment caretaker, she completed the art course at Cooper Union in 3 years. The New York public library commissioned her to produce a bust of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, the first in a series of leading African-American figures, such as black nationalist Marcus Garvey. These meetings were to have a strong impact on the artist, who became a formidable activist. Her first feat occurred in 1923. Excluded from a study programme in France due to the colour of her skin, she confronted the admissions committee, becoming the first African-American woman to defy the art world. Despite social and economic difficulties, she continued to sculpt, including plaster busts such as Gamin (1930), her most well-known work, which represents a Harlem street boy and which portrays the beauty of African-Americans, previously appearing in the form of racist caricatures. Her success was such that she was awarded the Rosenwald Fellowship, allowing her to finally go to Paris, where she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière with sculptor Félix Benneteau-Desgrois.