Title: Concetta Scaravaglione: Italian American Sculptor
Abstract: Concetta Scaravaglione (1900-1975), whose career spanned over five decades, was a critically-acclaimed American woman sculp? tor. An early career artist, she counted among her admirers and supporters some of the most influential fellow artists, art critics, museum directors and curators of her time. Among the awards and grants she received were major commissions for the Federal Art Project in the 1930s, a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Prix de Rome award from the American Academy, the first such award to be granted to a woman. Today, although there is renewed interest in women's contri? butions to American art, there is a dearth of knowledge about all but the most acclaimed artists. Yet, as Karal Marling and Helen Harrison explain in the catalog for an exhibition of work done by women artists, including Scaravaglione, in the 1930s, The presence of wom? en in positions of leadership at all points in this rich panorama of artistic activity confirms their centrality.1 As the child of Italian immigrants who had left Calabria for New York City, Scaravaglione was very much influenced by the values of her parents. As she wrote in an autobiographical essay first published in August 1939 in Magazine of Art, My family brought to America what so many Italian families have brought from outof the-way villages to crowded sidewalks: courage, knowledge of hard labor, and capacity to work.2 Concetta Scaravaglione was the youngest of nine children, and when she was very young, her father died, leaving her mother, Rosa, with a small grocery store in New York to manage with the help of her older children. Scaravaglione's first exposure to drawing and sculpt? ing came from her public school art classes, where her abilities were recognized and her teachers recommended that she pursue her
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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