The civil rights activist Angela Davis is said to have felt inspired, among other things, by Betye Saar’s stirring work for her involvement in the Black Power movement. And today the American artist, born in 1926, is still a source of inspiration for a young generation of artists in their examination of black identity and racism.
Saar, who initially drew, is best known for her assemblages, which she has been making from found objects for over 50 years and combining them with drawings, prints and photos. She has had numerous exhibitions in the USA since the 1960s, but her work is less well known in Germany.
Spirituality as an important topic
A purchase from the MoMA in New York helped her achieve her breakthrough. The museum purchased the painting “Black Girl’s Window” from her early period, in which the silhouette of a black person looks out of a wooden frame, with nine, some mystical, symbols in the upper part of the picture. The picture is autobiographical, said the artist, loneliness and isolation not only result from social exclusion. The picture was also taken the year of Saar’s divorce.
The political and the private repeatedly overlap in Saar’s work; several of her assemblages combat racist stereotypes against black women. In her most famous work in 1972, she equipped the smiling Aunt Jemima figure in the slave stereotype, which had adorned the packaging of pancake mix since 1889, with a black power fist and a shotgun. The brand only disappeared from the shelves in 2021.
Saar had a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2019, where her works were combined with sketches from her numerous notebooks, often created while traveling.
The recognition also came in Germany in May 2021. The American was awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig. The company had purchased Saar’s 1971 assemblage “The Divine Face.” Guest juror Christophe Cherix recognized the artist as a key figure in American art at the award ceremony.
“Her assemblages from the 1960s and early 1970s link questions of race, politics, and supernatural belief systems to her personal history. Saar, who grew up in a segregated society, has held on to her belief over the years that art can overcome our darkest moments and deepest fears. Today, a new generation of artists is drawing on her overwhelming work…” says Cherix.
The American died last Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 99.