MoMA

Art Radio WPS1.org

P.S.1 Newspaper

2008 Spring

Betye Saar: The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

Betye Saar in conversation with MoMA intern Joyce Kuechler.

Betye Saar

1999

Photograph by Jimi Giannatti

Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Joyce Kuechler: You became interested in making art as a child. Did you have any particular female role models?

Betye Saar: I was a child of the Depression and my siblings and I grew up making things that were more craft than art. My mother, a widow, was a seamstress who taught my sister and me to sew. As children, we had crayons, paints, and always had at home projects like puppet shows, gifts for family, toys, and so on. Our home was decorated with paintings that were usually cast-off from the people my family worked for. My mother had craft hobbies. Her mother, who died when she was young, painted china. My paternal grandmother made quilts.

JK: You have a very strong artistic tradition in your family. As for your own daughters, how did you begin to collaborate with them?  

BS: Just as I did with my mother, my three daughters grew up making things. In the 1960s, our “hippie days”, we tie-dyed shirts, made quilted skirts, strung beads, and went to the Renaissance Faire and “love-ins”. We would go on sketching picnics. All the girls took art classes and both Alison and Lezley became artists. As a result, curators began inviting us to exhibit together.

JK: You often use recycled and second-hand materials that are incorporated in your assemblage works. Where do you get your inspiration?

BS: My materials and ideas are found in various places, but mostly in flea markets. The monthly Pasadena City College Flea Market is a great source. I also hunt for things in second-hand thrift shops and antique stores. Wherever I travel I always find something to recycle into my art. Much of my inspiration comes from the things I find.

JK: As for the 1972 work shown in WACK!, The Libertation of Aunt Jemima, what historical events, if any, inspired you to use African American imagery?  

BS: In the mid-1960s, the Civil Rights Movement and the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. greatly increased my awareness of racial injustice. I began collecting derogatory images of Black Americans. For The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, I purchased a plastic figure of Aunt Jemima at a flea market and then I recycled this memo pad and pencil holder, liberating her from a kitchen decoration to a warrior.

JK: This piece has strong feminist overtones and is very striking to the viewer. How has your relationship with feminism developed over time?

BS: During meetings at Womenspace in L.A., my focus was on the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, in 1973 I curated an exhibition called Black Mirror. As a mother and a grandmother, I live my life to emphasize the importance of being an independent woman and to express myself creatively.

JK: Your body of work continues to grow and is enhanced by your devotion to the arts. Can you divulge something about your current works?

BS: As you may have gathered, I collect a lot of materials, and currently I’ve been accumulating rusted metal pieces. At the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, in 2006, I exhibited a twig cage assemblage and I’m now building a series of cages using rusted metal.  Some of them refer to captivity, while other works are concerned with emotional, mental, or social “cages.”