Trailblazing Conceptual and Assemblage Artist Betye Saar Passes at 99 Years Old: 1926–2026
Path-breaking assemblage and conceptual artist Betye Saar has passed away on July 26th, 2026, at the age of 99. Often celebrated for her famous work, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” (1972), Saar manipulated racist product packaging and antique store finds like commonplace domestic blackface memorabilia to interrogate and challenge white stereotypes of black people, especially women. Her strategy for doing so was often to disrupt the flow of such widespread images and their tired and limiting assumptions of black pathology.
“The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” (1972)
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For “Liberation” and other works, a key method was to arm Aunt Jemima with a gun and insert a Black Power fist. As Saar stated in her own words, “I wanted to empower her. I wanted to make her a warrior.”
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The oldest of three children in a mixed African American and Indigenous family, Betye Irene Brown was born on July 30th, 1926, in Watts, California. She mainly grew up in a partially racially segregated Pasadena. Inspired by Watts Towers and surrealist artist Joseph Cornell’s memento boxes, she graduated with a major in design from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949.
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An avid traveller, Saar collected keepsakes from visits to Brazil, Haiti, Mexico, Nigeria, and Senegal which found their way into her art. A believer that objects had a spirit, her works often included layered combinations of old jewelry, photography, and fabric used to explore her interest in themes of palmistry, astrology, and tarot card readings. By the late 1960s, Saar began to use old window frames as a structuring element in works like “Black Girl’s Window” (1969), a wooden framed painting with ten sections decorated with celestial, animal, and anatomical symbolism above a stark black, faceless, but all-seeing form of an Afro-wearing black girl, palms raised as if pressed against and trapped behind the window.
“Black Girl’s Window” (1969), detail of the lower 4 panes
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Denied the accolades she so richly deserved at an early phase of her career, Saar’s celebrity rose when she reached her 80s and 90s and she was celebrated with several lifetime achievement awards including from the Craft & Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles, as well as a joint honour from the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) San Francisco and the International Sculpture Center.
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Saar’s three daughters from her eighteen-year marriage to the ceramist Richard Saar (who passed in 2004)—Tracye, Alison, and Lezley—survive her, along with six grandchildren. All three daughters have careers in the arts.
Saar spoke of her love of artmaking and a passion to create that fuelled her across decades and stayed with her until the end. In 2024 she stated: “I still want to make art… Sometimes… it’s hard to get out of bed… But I do it. Not everyone has a reason to get out of bed… I am so lucky that I have that as part of my life.”
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Amen and Blessings!