Major Retrospective of African American Sculptor Announced

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is deeply honored to announce the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the pioneering, 20th-century African American sculptor, Augusta Savage. This monumental exhibition, long overdue in the context of major American museums, will finally provide a full, rigorous examination of Savage's profound impact on modern art and the Harlem Renaissance.

The exhibition will gather over eighty sculptures, ranging from her early, intimate terracotta portrait busts to large-scale, monumental bronzes. Securing these loans required an unprecedented, nationwide curatorial effort, as many of Savage's most significant works have been dispersed across small regional museums, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and private collections.

A central focus of the retrospective will be the tragic, complex history of Savage's most famous work, 'The Harp' (also known as 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'). Originally commissioned for the 1939 New York World's Fair, the massive, sixteen-foot plaster sculpture was tragically destroyed at the fair's conclusion due to lack of funds to cast it in bronze. The exhibition will feature a newly commissioned, highly accurate digital reconstruction of the piece.

Beyond her work as an artist, the exhibition will extensively document Savage's crucial role as an educator, activist, and institution builder. The galleries will feature archival photographs, personal correspondence, and rare film footage detailing her founding of the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, where she mentored an entire generation of groundbreaking Black artists, including Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.

Accompanied by a massive, scholarly catalogue featuring essays by leading African American art historians, this retrospective aims to definitively cement Augusta Savage's legacy. The Met views this exhibition as a critical step in a broader, ongoing institutional effort to correct historical omissions and center the brilliant, diverse voices that have fundamentally shaped the trajectory of American art.