Betye Saar, a groundbreaking artist known for transforming racist imagery into powerful works of modern American art, has died at the age of 99. She passed away in Los Angeles on Sunday, just days before her 100th birthday. Saar was a defining figure of the Black Arts Movement and a pioneer of assemblage art, using found objects to challenge racism and reclaim painful symbols of Black history.
Saar's 1972 work, 'The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,' became one of her most iconic pieces. The mixed-media artwork reclaimed the derogatory 'mammy' trope, depicting a Black woman holding a broom and a rifle against a backdrop of Aunt Jemima labels. Saar described the piece as a commentary on how African American women were treated as sex objects and domestic soldiers. This work inspired a series of her art aimed at reclaiming negative images of Black people.
Another notable work, 'I’ll Bend But I Will Not Break' (1998), held in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, features an ironing board with a sheet monogrammed with the letters 'KKK.' The piece, which includes a chained iron and an imprint of the British slave ship Brookes, makes a profound statement about slavery, forced labor, and continuing racism in America. Saar's 1984 installation 'Oasis' was a large-scale, site-specific work that represented a leap in her artistic evolution, featuring a futuristic desert landscape with colored glass bulbs and a windswept chair.
Saar's work was celebrated internationally, with a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 2019. Museum of Modern Art director Christophe Cherix described her as someone who dismantled racist imagery, transforming it into a monument of Black empowerment, resilience, and resistance. Saar was born in 1926 in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles and began her artistic career in her mid-40s, becoming a mother of three daughters before gaining widespread recognition.
Her longtime gallery, Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, confirmed her death. Saar's legacy includes over six decades of work that reshaped the conversation around race, identity, and American history through art.