Selma Hortense Burke
Personal Information
Born: 1900
Died: 1995
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
Slater Industrial & Normal School (later Winston-Salem State University) BA 1922; St. Agnes Training School for Nurses RN 1924; Sarah Lawrence College Art classes; Columbia University MFA 1941
"she summed up her life as an artist by saying "I really live & move in the atmosphere in which I am creating"*"Art didn't start black or white, it just started...There have been too many labels in this world: Negro, Colored, Black, African-American...Why do we label people with everything except Children of God?"(Women's Caucus for Art article "Selma Burke: A Story of Overcoming Adversity And Becoming One of America’s Most Celebrated Sculptors" MAY 10, 2022 | ART INSIGHTS Written By: Chiara Atoyebi "
— Selma Hortense Burke
Professional Life
Field of Study: Sculpture
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degrees: Livingstone College (1970) Spelman College (1988) UNC(1977) Winston-Salem University (1979); Member: Delta Sigma Theta; Harlem Renaissance
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1979 Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award; 1983 Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women; 1988 Pearl S. Buck Foundation Women's Award; 1989 Essence Magazine Award; July 20, 1975 was declared Selma Burke Day in Pittsburgh, PA by Gov. Milton Shapp; Julius Rosenwald Award; 1936 Boehler Foundation Award; 1993 Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania Award
Achievements: did the bas relief portrait of FDR that inspired the profile on the obverse of the dime (official credit for the portrait on the dime is given to US Mint Chief Engraver John Sinnock); taught art to youth in NYC through the WPA's Federal Art Project & the Harlem Community Arts Center; was part of the Harlem Renaissance; joined the US Navy after the US entered WWII & was assigned to drive a truck at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; she believed in times of war artists should get out of the studio & do their part; after 3 years was injured on the job hurting her back & during her recuperation she won a national contest for the commission of a bronze relief portrait of FDR & was allowed to sketch him over a 2-day period in February 1944
was a member of the Harlem Renaissance
7th of 10 children born to her parents
father encouraged her art pursuits but he died when she was 12 & her mother thought she needed a more practical career like nursing
moved to New York city in the late 1920s & was a private nurse for Amelia Waring heiress to the Otis Elevator empire
Waring introduced her to the art & culture of New York & became her art patron
she became a full-time sculptress & art teacher after Waring's death
received 2 scholarships which enabled her to go to Paris & Vienna where she studied with the likes of Aristide Maillot & met Henri Matisse who encouraged her artistic endeavors
worked as a body model to pay for her art classes at Sarah Lawrence College
had a romantic relationship with Claude McKay, a poet & novelist of the Harlem Renaissance but sources vary as to whether or not they were married, with some sources saying they were married twice
her last sculpture was a 9-foot one of Martin Luther King Junior completed in 1980 & now on display at Marshall Park in Charlotte North Carolina
her works are in many museums including Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winston-Salem State University, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Mooresville Public Library, & Spelman College
Black children were banned from the pubic library in her hometown of Mooresville NC so she agreed to donate a bust of a local doctor to the library is they lifted the ban & they accepted
she attended a 1-room segregated school house as a child
her 3.5x2.5 foot plaque of FDR that was the inspiration (though many believe it was the source she was never credited with) for his profile on the dime remains hanging in the Recorder of Deeds Building where it was unveiled by President Truman in 1945