As one of the artists who ushered in the development of Assemblage art, Betye Saar’s practice reflects on African American identity, spirituality and the connectedness between different cultures. Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists.
For over six decades, Saar has created assemblage works that explore the social, political, and economic underpinnings of America’s collective memory. She began her career at the age of 35 producing work that dealt with mysticism, nature and family. Saar’s art became political in the 1970’s namely with the assemblage The Liberation of Aunt Jemima in 1972. Activist and scholar Angela Davis has cited this work as the beginning of the Black Women’s movement. Like many women who came to political consciousness in the 1960s, Saar takes on the feminist mantra “the personal is political” as a fundamental principle in her assemblage works. Her appropriation of black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion, and yet given her status as a pioneer of the Assemblage movement, the impact of Saar’s oeuvre on contemporary art has yet to be fully acknowledged or critically assessed. Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach and continues to both actively produce work and inspire countless others.
Saar received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949 and has received six honorary doctorates. Her contributions to art and community activism have earned her numerous accolades, including two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, the W.E.B. Du Bois Award (2022), and the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2022).
In 1975, Saar’s first solo museum show was held at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York where she was the first African American woman to have her art on display there. Recent solo exhibitions include Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (2021); and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2023); The Huntington Library (2024); and The Neubauer Collegium (2025.) Saar’s artwork is in numerous public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern and Museum Ludwig, among many others.
As one of the artists who ushered in the development of Assemblage art, Betye Saar’s practice reflects on African American identity, spirituality and the connectedness between different cultures. Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists.
For over six decades, Saar has created assemblage works that explore the social, political, and economic underpinnings of America’s collective memory. She began her career at the age of 35 producing work that dealt with mysticism, nature and family. Saar’s art became political in the 1970’s namely with the assemblage The Liberation of Aunt Jemima in 1972. Activist and scholar Angela Davis has cited this work as the beginning of the Black Women’s movement. Like many women who came to political consciousness in the 1960s, Saar takes on the feminist mantra “the personal is political” as a fundamental principle in her assemblage works. Her appropriation of black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion, and yet given her status as a pioneer of the Assemblage movement, the impact of Saar’s oeuvre on contemporary art has yet to be fully acknowledged or critically assessed. Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach and continues to both actively produce work and inspire countless others.
Saar received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949 and has received six honorary doctorates. Her contributions to art and community activism have earned her numerous accolades, including two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, the W.E.B. Du Bois Award (2022), and the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2022).
In 1975, Saar’s first solo museum show was held at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York where she was the first African American woman to have her art on display there. Recent solo exhibitions include Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (2021); and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2023); The Huntington Library (2024); and The Neubauer Collegium (2025.) Saar’s artwork is in numerous public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern and Museum Ludwig, among many others.
As one of the artists who ushered in the development of Assemblage art, Betye Saar’s practice reflects on African American identity, spirituality and the connectedness between different cultures. Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists.
For over six decades, Saar has created assemblage works that explore the social, political, and economic underpinnings of America’s collective memory. She began her career at the age of 35 producing work that dealt with mysticism, nature and family. Saar’s art became political in the 1970’s namely with the assemblage The Liberation of Aunt Jemima in 1972. Activist and scholar Angela Davis has cited this work as the beginning of the Black Women’s movement. Like many women who came to political consciousness in the 1960s, Saar takes on the feminist mantra “the personal is political” as a fundamental principle in her assemblage works. Her appropriation of black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion, and yet given her status as a pioneer of the Assemblage movement, the impact of Saar’s oeuvre on contemporary art has yet to be fully acknowledged or critically assessed. Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach and continues to both actively produce work and inspire countless others.
Saar received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949 and has received six honorary doctorates. Her contributions to art and community activism have earned her numerous accolades, including two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, the W.E.B. Du Bois Award (2022), and the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2022).
In 1975, Saar’s first solo museum show was held at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York where she was the first African American woman to have her art on display there. Recent solo exhibitions include Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (2021); and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2023); The Huntington Library (2024); and The Neubauer Collegium (2025.) Saar’s artwork is in numerous public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern and Museum Ludwig, among many others.
