Betye Saar died at 99. See her groundbreaking work in LA now<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has the highlights.<\/p>\n
Betye Saar\u2019s long art career was the subject of media profiles and art shows in the years and months leading up to a milestone birthday this week. She died Sunday, July 26, four days before she would have turned 100.<\/p>\n
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Betye Saar in her studio in Los Angeles on January 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
David Sprague<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Courtesy Roberts Projects<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
Saar had deep roots in Southern California. She was born, raised and educated in the Los Angeles area. She was firmly rooted in the region and in various Black communities, but her art was not provincial.<\/p>\n
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Saar took on the global, national and regional issues that affected Black Americans in her drawings, paintings and assemblages. She redefined, broke apart and juxtaposed issues related to stereotypes and racism, as well as mysticism and spirituality. <\/p>\n
She exhibited widely in the U.S., and her pieces are in the permanent collections of many museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.<\/p>\n
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The piece I\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break on view at LACMA.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez\/LAist<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
The next few weeks provide a unique opportunity for people who live in or are visiting L.A. to see a wide spectrum of Saar\u2019s work \u2014 from the fashion, jewelry and costume designs she created early in her art career to the final commissioned piece she made a few years before her death. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a work that takes on the concepts of memory and transition.<\/p>\n
A piece in the museum Betye Saar grew up going to<\/p>\n
Saar grew up in Pasadena, and when she was young, she frequented The Huntington in nearby San Marino. In 2023 the museum unveiled one of Saar’s pieces, titled “Drifting Toward Twilight,” on display through Nov. 30, 2027. <\/p>\n
To create the work, Saar used found objects, metal cages and animal horns, and placed them inside a wooden canoe. The vessel rests on a bed of branches and twigs she collected from the grounds of The Huntington. The piece is displayed in a room where the walls have been painted in three shades of blue and where the lights subtly change, illuminating seven shapes representing the stages of the moon.<\/p>\n
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The piece Drifting Toward Twilight was Betye Saar’s last commissioned piece before she died. It’s on display at the Huntington until the fall of 2027. <\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez\/LAist<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s basically drawing up a scene for us in our minds, so that as we engage with the installation,” said Lauren Cross, the Huntington\u2019s associate curator of American decorative arts. “We are in the canoe on a journey with her, traveling along, and experiencing the work with her.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cross said Saar was working with the idea of transitions, including spiritual transition related to death.<\/p>\n
A 16-minute video created for this exhibit, based on Betye Saar\u2019s life as an artist, plays in a room next to the gallery.<\/p>\n
A mother and an artist<\/p>\n
The exhibit that\u2019s likely to give the deepest view of Saar\u2019s art is on view for a few more weeks.<\/p>\n
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A piece made in 1969 by Betye Saar on view at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Robert Wedemeyer<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the artist andRoberts Projects, LosAngeles<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
“Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar” is at Roberts Projects<\/a> until Aug. 22. It features more than 200 objects, including costume designs, photographs, drawings, garments, jewelry, artworks and historic materials from the 1950s to the 1970s as Saar was becoming a nationally recognized artist. <\/p>\n The show demonstrates how deeply Saar created for stage productions in L.A. such as for the Inner City Cultural Center, a multicultural performing arts group started after the 1965 Watts Rebellion.<\/p>\n The decorative art she created would have defined a remarkable career, but then around the late 1960s she moved on to assemblages, works made with found objects. These works took on lifelong areas of interests such as spirituality and racism.<\/p>\n The piece Souvenir of Friendship (1977) by Betye Saar is on view at Hauser & Wirth in downtown L.A. until August 16.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n One of the most poignant pieces, titled “I\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break,” from 1998, is on display at LACMA\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries. Saar uses a vintage ironing board, wood clothespins, a flat iron and a white bedsheet to comment on women\u2019s work, slavery\u2019s dehumanization and the enduring racism that seems to infuse much of U.S. society.<\/p>\n Detail from the piece I\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break on view at LACMA.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Adolfo Guzman-Lopez\/LAist<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cBetye is very much alive in her work,”said Carol S. Eliel, \u200asenior curator emerita of modern art at LACMA. “There’s so much of her personality, her fierceness \u2026 she had an iron spine. She was a very gentle, lovely, beautiful person, but you could not steamroll her and I think the work reflects that. <\/p>\n Betye Saar in North African dress in 1968 in a photo that’s on display at Roberts Projects.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Carol A. Beers <\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me happy that someone who had such a long and rich and productive career will live on through these amazing works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The LACMA piece is part of the museum’s permanent collection. Much of the other work by Saar in L.A. will come down in the next month and a half.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a guide to help you plan a Betye Saar L.A. art tour.<\/p>\n Places in L.A. where you can see Betye Saar\u2019s work now<\/p>\n The Huntington is showing “Drifting Toward Twilight<\/a>” through Nov. 30, 2027.At LACMA<\/a>, “I\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break” is in the Atlantic Ocean section of the museum\u2019s new galleries.The Hammer is showing Betye Saar\u2019s work “Memory of Fire” (1988\/1992) as part of its SPACE IS THE PLACE: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection<\/a>, through Sept. 6.Roberts Projects<\/a> has the most extensive collection of Saar\u2019s work currently on display in L.A. “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar” is up until Aug. 22 and features more than 200 objects, including costume designs, photographs, drawings, garments, jewelry, artworks and historic materials from the 1950s to the 1970s, as Saar was becoming a nationally recognized artist.Hauser & Wirth in downtown L.A. has two works by Betye Saar on display as part of the exhibit Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection<\/a>, up until Aug. 16.Karma gallery in West Hollywood has a piece by Saar in its group show Dictation from the Other Side<\/a> up through Sept. 12.[online] L.A.\u2019s California African American Museum (CAAM) has shown Saar\u2019s work and has great resources<\/a> about her life and art.[online] The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles owns one piece by Betye Saar, according to the museum.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Betye Saar died at 99. 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