RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Betye Saar, the groundbreaking artist who transformed racist imagery into some of the most powerful works of modern American art and became a defining voice of the Black Arts Movement, has died just days before her 100th birthday. She was 99.
Saar died Sunday morning in Los Angeles, her family confirmed Monday, bringing to a close a remarkable career that spanned more than six decades and reshaped the conversation around race, identity and American history through art.
A pioneering force in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Saar became internationally celebrated for her striking assemblages — sculptures built from found objects that challenged racism and reclaimed painful symbols of Black history.
"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," Roberts Projects, the Los Angeles gallery that represented Saar, said in a statement.
Saar didn't begin making art professionally until she was 35 after first working in design, but she went on to become one of America's most influential contemporary artists, continuing to create well into her 90s.
Raised in Pasadena and surrounded by Southern California's growing Black artistic community, Saar often credited the iconic Watts Towers as one of the inspirations that sparked her imagination.
Her work stretched across painting, printmaking and sculpture, but she became best known for transforming everyday objects — including dolls, washboards, antiques and family heirlooms — into deeply symbolic works exploring Black culture, spirituality and resilience.
Among her most celebrated creations was "Black Girl's Window," completed in 1969. Although now considered one of the defining works of American art, it gained widespread recognition decades later after being acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"There weren't that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren't any for Black artists," Saar once recalled.
Her most iconic work, "The Liberation of Aunt Jemima," created in 1972, became one of the defining images of the Black Arts Movement. Saar transformed the stereotypical "mammy" figure from racist advertising into a symbol of resistance, placing a rifle in one hand and a grenade in the other.
Angela Robinson Witherspoon, director of the 2023 documentary Betye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior , said the piece was inspired by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"She was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement," Robinson Witherspoon said.
For years, despite widespread admiration from fellow artists, Saar's work received only limited attention from major museums. That changed dramatically in 2019, when both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art mounted major solo exhibitions celebrating her extraordinary career.
Beyond her own artwork, Saar became an influential mentor to generations of Black artists, including acclaimed painter Kerry James Marshall, helping shape the future of American contemporary art.
Robinson Witherspoon said Saar's creative drive never faded.
"I think that she had boundless energy for making art," she said. "I think she had a lot to say and was tired of the art world being dominated by white males."
Saar had been scheduled to join the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2026, a fitting honor for an artist whose work helped redefine American art.
Even after her death, her work continues to reach new audiences. Her exhibition, "Let's Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar," showcasing her costume and wearable art, remains on display at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles.
Saar leaves behind a legacy that transformed painful pieces of America's past into enduring works of art, ensuring her influence will continue to shape generations of artists to come.
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