Betye Saar

by Jane H. Carpenter, David C. Driskell (Foreword), Jane H. Carpenter

Considered a premier assemblage artist, Betye Saar has been creating inspired pieces since the early 1960s. Her works are in the collections of notable museums like Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; The Studio Museum in Harlem; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She has taught at the University of California and at the Parsons-Otis Institute, both in Los Angeles, and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Betye Saar is a comprehensive look at Saar's works, from the 1960 print Samsara to the powerful mixed-media assemblage Blackbird (2002), and a dynamic career.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

116 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Charlene]

In this book, the passion and work of LA's 89 year old Assemblage artist of the 1960's and 70's comes alive. UCLA graduate, social worker turned activist, expressed the world she knew through African American Folk art. Ms. Saar grew up watching Simon Rodia's Watts Towers rise up from the ground. She broke down the stereotypes through layers of her creativity.

Hold this book in your hands and you can feel the struggles, the pain, the weight the world in bold images from family memorabilia including old photographs, letters, lockets, dried flowers, and handkerchiefs shaped in shrinelike boxes of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, Little Black Sambo.

[Sophiam]

A good overview of Saar’s work with very good images of her assemblages and good visual analysis to guide you through them. The authors draw connections between her past and her work and explain why the work fits into the larger narratives of art in California and concepts African Americans in particular were addressing in their work.

[Kathryn]

The writing could be technically better but I loooove betye saar’s work so this was still a really fascinating read