STUDIOS: Betye Saar Has Stories to Tell

Los Angeles Times

02.27.2019

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“I guess my work could be considered narrative, because I feel that every object has a story about its previous life. And sometimes I change that. But I like to have a lot unsaid, so that the viewer can reinterpret what I’m trying to say.” —Betye Saar

Now in her 92^nd year, Betye Saar is a trailblazing inspiration who first rose to prominence in the early 1970s with her series surrounding her iconic work The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972). A key figure in the Black Arts Movement and in feminist art, the Los Angeles native is known her distinct assemblage works that balance the personal and the political. Saar is now featured in a fascinatingly–focused exhibition at the New York Historical Society, Betye Saar: Keeping it Clean (through May 27, 2019) that highlights Saar’s works using washboards between 1997 and 2017.

In 2016, the fantastic Carolina Miranda wrote a profile [limited access] on Saar for the Los Angeles Times, which produced this video to accompany it.