![]() Underside: "Reproduction of a Work of Art / Created by / AUGUSTA SAVAGE / "LIFE EVERY VOICE AND SING" / NOW ON EXHIBIT / AT THE / NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR / Augusta Savage Studios, Inc. ![]() Inscribed On base: "Augusta Savage" and "Worlds Fair 1939" Printed paper label on bottom designating publication by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., at 143 West 125th Street. Original-ppi 1200 Pages 5 Pdfmoduleversion 0.0.17 Ppi 600 Rippingdate 20211230101646 Rippingoperator Rippingscanner archivelp-rip-cebu18 Rippingsoftwareversion ArchiveCD Version 2.2. Incised signature and “Worlds Fair 1939” at the base. Lift Every Voice And Sing Audio With External Links Item Preview. It survives only through small-scale replicas like this one.ĭescription Sculpture (white metal cast with black patina) depicting 12 singers in the form of a harp. It was demolished after the event-smashed by bulldozers as part of the fair’s cleanup. Savage lacked the funds to cast the original work in bronze and to pay for a facility to store it. One of the most popular works of art at the fair, it was seen by over 5 million visitors and received high praise in the press. The sculpture stood prominently near one of the entrances to the fair in the court of the Contemporary Arts Building. It was the only commission at the 1939 World’s Fair from a black woman artist. Savage’s original 16-foot sculpture was an extraordinary accomplishment that defied systemic period sexism and the institutionalized racism of Jim Crow. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written as a poem by Savage’s friend James Weldon Johnson in 1900, set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1905, and declared the “Negro National Anthem” by the NAACP in 1919. The composition casts the singers as instruments of God and in so doing highlights the religiosity of its source material. And the hand and arm of God stand in for the sounding board. The folds of choir robes worn by twelve stylized young black singers in graduated heights form the strings of the harp. A kneeling man holding a rectangular plate represents the foot pedal. ![]()
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