Augusta Savage

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Augusta Savage née Augusta Christine Fells (born February 29, 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida; died March 26, 1962 in New York City) was an African American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

She began making clay figures as a child despite her father considering this to be a sinful practice based on his understanding of the "graven images" portion of the Bible. By 1921 she had married James Savage and entered an art program, which she paid for through laundry work. Several years after the marriage James Savage died, during their marriage they had one child, a daughter named Irene, this was the only child Augusta Savage had in her lifetime. In 1923 she was turned down for a summer art program from the French government because of her race. This led to Herman MacNeil taking her on as a student. She went on to do sculptors of several important figures in the African American, particularly Marcus Garvey.^[1]

She was married to Robert Lincoln Poston from 1923 to his death in the following year.