Betye Saar

American, born 1926

Explore Selected Works

Betye Saar, Judith Solodkin, Blow Top Blues, The Fire Next Time, 1998, color lithograph and collage on Rives wove paper, Gift of Bob Stana and Tom Judy, 2015.115.42

Blow Top Blues, The Fire Next Time

Betye Saar, Judith Solodkin · 1998 · color lithograph and collage on Rives wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.115.42

Betye Saar, The Trickster, 1994, mixed media assemblage, Purchased as the Gift of Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Senator John Davison Rockefeller IV, 2021.85.1

The Trickster

Betye Saar · 1994 · mixed media assemblage ·  Accession ID  2021.85.1

Betye Saar, Robert Franklin, Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Mystic Sky with Self-Portrait, 1992, color offset lithograph with cut-and-mounted addition on wove paper, Gift of Funds from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, 2023.22.45

Mystic Sky with Self-Portrait

Betye Saar, Robert Franklin, Brandywine Workshop and Archives · 1992 · color offset lithograph with cut-and-mounted addition on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2023.22.45

Betye Saar, Dat Ol' Black Magic, 1981, paper and plastic collage on printed cotton fabric, Corcoran Collection (The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr.), 2014.136.225

Dat Ol' Black Magic

Betye Saar · 1981 · paper and plastic collage on printed cotton fabric ·  Accession ID  2014.136.225

A scene with a person holding a cornucopia is set against a night sky on this wood block. The person has peachy-brown skin and long silvery hair. A piece of drapery, also silver, flows around the hips as the person holds a cornucopia angled down and to the left. Blue and green material pours or hangs out of the horn. The person is contained within a silver oval frame. Fifteen green teardrop- or sperm-shaped orbs approach the oval to the left and fourteen approach from the right. Everything described so far is shown in low relief on the wood block. A translucent star is pinned or nailed to the panel near the top left corner and a translucent, crescent moon to the top right. To either side of the person are textured triangular shapes. The form to the left is green and points up, like a mountain, and the form to the right is blue and points in, like a cresting wave. Both have ragged edges and appear to be carved and affixed with nails, the heads of which are visible. Two translucent rectangles, possibly the same material as the star and moon, lie side-by-side between the green and blue forms on the bottom edge of the block.
Betye Saar, Twilight Awakening, 1978, mixed media on printer's wood block, Gift of Francine Farr in honor of Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis, with gratitude to Scripps College, Claremont, California, 2015.27.1

Twilight Awakening

Betye Saar · 1978 · mixed media on printer's wood block ·  Accession ID  2015.27.1