Selma Burke

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Selma Burke

Burke in her studio
Birth name Selma Hortense Burke
Born (1900-12-31)December 31, 1900
Mooresville, North Carolina, United States
Died August 29, 1995(1995-08-29) (aged 94)
Nationality American
Field Sculpture
Training Columbia University
The plaque of Roosevelt at the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington D.C

Selma Hortense Burke (31 December 1900 – 29 August 1995) was an American sculptor. She educated others in her passion of art, she founded two art schools, on in New York City and another in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her art is on display in Washington D.C and North Carolina. Burke is best known for her bas relief of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Biography

Born on December 31, 1900 in Mooresville, North Carolina to a farming family. Her father was an AME Church Zion Minister, she demonstrated an early interest in art, but her mother thought she should pursue a more marketable vocation.[1][2] She graduated from the St. Agnes Training School for Nurses in Raleigh in 1924.[3] She then moved to Harlem, where she found work as a nurse.

Burke was caught up in the Harlem Renaissance with Claude McKay and, influenced by the Harlem Arts Community Center, began to chase her dream of being an artist.[4] Burke continued sculpting in her free time. The Rosenwald (1935) and the Boehler (1936) Foundation Grants[5] in the late 1930s enabled her to study sculpture in Vienna and with Aristide Maillol in Paris, culminating in her Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in 1941.[6]

Burke was chosen to sculpt a portrait of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt honoring the Four Freedoms.[7] Completed in 1944, the 3.5-by-2.5-foot plaque was unveiled in September 1945 at the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C., where it still hangs today.[8] The plaque may have served as John R. Sinnock's inspiration for his obverse design on the Roosevelt dime.[8] Sinnock, however, denied this vehemently, claiming the design for the dime was based on an earlier medal he had sculpted.[9]

She was committed to teaching art to others, to that end she established the Selma Burke Art School in New York City and opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[10] Open from 1968 to 1981, the center "was an original art center that played an integral role in the Pittsburgh art community," offering courses ranging from studio workshops to puppetry classes.[8] Burke also taught art in the Pittsburgh Public Schools for 17 years. She received her second doctorate degree at Livingston College in 1970, she also received 8 honorary doctorate degrees for her life time efforts.[5]

Burke is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[6]

Selected work

Other of her works can be found at:[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Selma Burke". October Gallery. Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  2. ↑ "Dr. Selma Burke". Retrieved 14 March 2013. 
  3. ↑ Mack, Felicia. "Burke, Selma Hortense (1900-1995)". Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  4. ↑ Verderame, Lori. "The Sculptural Legacy Of Selma Burke, 1700-1995". Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Herring, Mac. "Dr. Selma Burke". Retrieved 14 March 2013. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Dr. Selma Burke: A Gifted Artist with Many Accomplishments with". African American Registry. Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  7. ↑ "Selma Burke; Sculptor, 94". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Verderame, Lori. "The Sculptural Legacy Of Selma Burke, 1900-1995". Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  9. ↑ Yanchunas, Dom. "The Roosevelt Dime at 60." COINage Magazine, February 2006.
  10. ↑ Stahl, Joan. "Selma Burke". Retrieved 17 December 2011. 
  11. ↑ http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1O6339O544M57.2325&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!19418~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!siartinventories&term=Burke%2C+Selma%2C+1900-1995%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR

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