Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute film that tells the story of an inspiring and enterprising artist, who in the 1920s and 30s, created a pipeline of creative opportunities for Black artists, will kick off American Masters Shorts, a new digital series from PBS’ flagship biography series, American Masters. Narrated by art historian and curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D. (traveling exhibit and book, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman), with Lorraine Toussaint (Orange is the New Black; The Glorias, The Equalizer) providing dramatic readings of the words of Augusta Savage, Searching for Augusta Savage premieres Thursday, February 15 on American Masters YouTube channel, PBS and the PBS App.
Searching for Augusta Savage investigates why evidence of Savage’s life and legacy appears to have been erased. Dr. Denise Murrell, Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Curator at Large, and Associate Curator of 19th- and 20th-Century Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, provides analysis in the film about why Savage’s work is missing from most museum collections, stating that, “[In] the museum market, the art market, the galleries, the critical attention was given to male artists.” Murrell is curator of the Met’s exhibition, “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism,” which opens February 25, and includes two of Savage’s works of art.
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Searching for Augusta Savage is written, produced and directed by Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley, the makers of UNLADYLIKE2020, the award-winning series of animated documentary shorts distributed by American Masters.
