Betye Saar: Extending the Frozen Moment
For four decades, artist Saar has been constructing assemblages, installations, and mixed-media collages remarkably evocative in form and meaning. Now, as a splendid retrospective exhibit of Saar's pioneering work tours the country, this richly interpretative and well--illustrated volume provides an essential overview of a major artist deeply involved in conveying the texture of African American life and the nature of femininity. Influenced by Watts Towers while growing up in L.A., and later by Joseph Cornell and Romare Bearden, Saar puts to exquisite and unexpected use mystical symbols and humble found objects, including buttons, gloves, and fabric. But the most striking elements in her shrinelike assemblages are old photographs. Many are family photographs; some are commercial icons, such as Aunt Jemima; others were found at flea markets and claimed by Saar as "instant ancestors"; and all critique racial and gender stereotypes. Saar's interpretative approach to craft traditions, provocative iconography, bold deciphering of social attitudes, and resounding assertion of "the power of the individual" are all thoughtfully explicated in this invaluable volume.Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved