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Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflected Black identity, culture and spirituality, died Sunday morning in Los Angeles at 99. <\/p>\n
Saar’s death was confirmed Monday by relatives. She would have turned 100 this week.<\/p>\n
A central figure of the 1960’s Black Art Movement, Saar pioneered assemblage, or sculptures made of found objects, and reclaimed Jim Crow-era memorabilia as powerful totems of Black liberation. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer 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,\u201d according to Roberts Projects, the Los Angeles gallery that represents her. <\/p>\n
Saar began her career in design and shifted to art at age 35. She continued to make art into her 90s. She grew up in Pasadena and was part of a community of Black artists in nearby Altadena<\/a>; she often cited Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers as an early source of inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cHer appropriation of Black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion,\u201d the gallery said. \u201cAmong the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach.\u201d<\/p>\n Saar\u2019s practice incorporated painting, printmaking, sculpture and found objects including dolls, washboards and other antiques.<\/p>\n Made in 1969, \u201cBlack Girl\u2019s Window,\u201d was groundbreaking. Still, it wasn’t widely celebrated until decades later, and it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2019. \u201cThere weren\u2019t that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren\u2019t any for Black artists,\u201d she once said in an interview<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Liberation of Aunt Jemima,\u201d created in 1972, is another one of her most important works. It features memorabilia she collected that denigrated Black people, included a \u201cmammy,\u201d or 19th century minstrel character who smiled while serving white slave owners.<\/p>\n In Saar’s hands though, the figure is reclaimed: She smiles, but holds a rifle and a hand grenade.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was done as an answer to the killing of Dr. King,\u201d said Angela Robinson Witherspoon, in reference to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> in Memphis, Tennessee. \u201cShe was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement.” <\/p>\n The Aunt Jemima brand was part of Quaker Oats for more than 130 years. The company announced in 2020<\/a> that it would retire the brand, recognizing the logo\u2019s origins were \u201cbased on a racial stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that she had boundless energy for making art. I think she had a lot to say and was tired of the art world being dominated by white males,” said Robinson Witherspoon, who produced and directed a documentary in 2023 on her. \u201cBetye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior” features interviews with John Legend, Tina Knowles and other prominent voices. <\/p>\n Though Saar’s work was exhibited in a 1975 solo show at the Whitney Museum, large institutions have exhibited her work only sporadically over the decades. In 2019 though, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art<\/a> and MoMA mounted concurrent solo shows.<\/p>\n Saar taught and mentored a generation of Black artists, including painter Kerry James Marshall<\/a>. She’s long been considered a leading figure of the West Coast arts landscape. <\/p>\n