Betye Saar

Betye Saar (born 1926) is a legend. For 60 years, she has created powerful artworks that question traditional roles and representations of African Americans and women in the US, as well as deeply personal works about her family history and spirituality. Betye Saar: Still Tickin’ considers the breadth of the artist’s career and its key themes. To contextualize Saar’s works, this volume includes writings by the artist from the 1970s to the present day as well as a recent interview with Saar in which she discusses her artistic practice and her views on history, including the current debate about police violence in the US. “My art becomes an explorer, a tracer of forgotten tribes, a seeker of sanctified visions,” explains Saar. “These works are what I leave behind.”… (más)

I was not familiar with this artist until I came across this book (an exhibition catalog from a show at the Michale Rosenfeld Gallery in New York, and the Columbus Museum Uptown, in Columbus, Georgia) while browsing the Newberry Library Book Sale. I was immediately hooked.

Working in assemblage and collage, using old photographs and found objects, Saar in this exhibition addressed the "difficult and conflicted relationships that African Americans have with the attitudes, language and character of calling each other names based on skin color." She herself is definitely a "melted pot", being of African-American, Irish, Native American, Creole, German and Scottish descent.

The artist says, "It is my goal as an artist to create works that expose injustice and reveal beauty. The rainbow is literally a spectrum of color while spiritually a symbol of hope and promise."… (más)