Born: Los Angeles, CA 1926

 

Education

B.A. University of California, Los Angeles, 1949

Graduate Studies at California State University, Long Beach

University of Southern California, California State University, Northridge

 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2000 Betye Saar: As Time Goes By 1591-1951.
  Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA.
  March 23 - May 29
  In Service
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York City, NY.
  March 9 - May 6
1999 Personal Icons.
  The University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
  Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass, CO.
  Workers & Warriors: The Return of Aunt Jemima.
  The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI.
1998 Workers & Warriors: The Return of Aunt Jemima.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Traveled Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville SC, and,
  The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI.
  Crossings. Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
  A Woman’s Boat: Voyages. Saddleback College of Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA.
1997-98 Ritual and Remembrance. California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
1997 Ritual and Remembrance. Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA.
1996 The Visual Journey. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA.
  Tangled Roots. The Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State College, PA.
  Personal Icons. de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA.
  Joselyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE.
  (Exhibits USA tour through 1997).
1994 Limbo. Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA.
1993 Betye Saar: The Secret Heart. Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA.
1992 Signs of the Times. Hypo Square, HypoBank, New York, NY.
  The Ritual Journey. Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, CT.
1991 Sentimental Souvenirs. Objects Gallery, Chicago, IL.
1990 Sanctified Visions. MOCA, Los Angeles, CA.
1989 Connections. Site Installations/USIA
  Illusions. Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
  Fragments of Fate. Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
1988 Connections. Site Installations/USIA
  Voyages: Dreams & Destinations. Taichung Museum of Art, Taichung, Taiwan.
  Shadow Song. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  House of Fortune. Manila, Philippines.
1987 Sentimental Sojourn: Strangers & Souvenirs. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
  Philadelphia, PA.
  Mojotech. List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts
  Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
1984 In Context. MOCA, Los Angeles, CA.
  Secrets & Revelations. Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
1983 Betye Saar: Collages & Installations. Woman’s Art Movement, Adelaide, Australia.
  Uneasy Dancer. Canberra School of Art, Canberra ACT, Australia.
1982 Betye Saar: Collages. Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1981 Betye Saar: New Work. Baum-Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
  Betye Saar: New Collages. Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY.
1980 Rituals. The Studio Museum in Harlem. New York, NY.
1979 Betye Saar: New Work. Baum-Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
1977 Ritual. Baun-Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
  Betye Saar. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA.
1976 Matrix 22, Betye Saar. Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT.
  Betye Saar. Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, NY.
1975 Betye Saar. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
1973 Betye Saar. California State University, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2000 African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Travels to Appleton Museum, F.F.U., Ocala, FL.
1999 The American Century: Art & Culture 1950-2000.
  Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
  African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VI.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Traveled to Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI.
  Bearing Witness. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.
  Afro-American History & Culture Museum
  Fresno, CA.
  Beyond the Veil: Art of African-American Artists at the Century's End.
  Cornell Fine Arts Museum
  Rollins College, Winter Park, FL.
1998 The Tip of the Iceberg: A Response to New York Museums III.
  Dorfman Projects, New York, NY.
  Ritual & Remembrance/Personal Icons.
  California African-American Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
  African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, V.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Traveled to Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
1997 African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IV.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Traveled to Fisk University Gallery, Nashville, TN.
  Going the Distance: A Generational Survey of Women Artists.
  Lawrence Gallery, Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA.
1996 Bearing Witness. Spelman College Museum of Art.
  Spelman College, Atlanta, GA. On tour.
  Three Outdoor Installations. 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA.
  African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, III.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
1995 The Art of Betye Saar and John Otterbridge. Africus Johannesburg Biennale.
  South Africa.
  African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, II.
  Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY.
  Traveled to Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI.
1994 The Art of Betye Saar and John Otterbridge. 22nd Biennial of Sao Paulo, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
  The US Delegation Fifth Biennial of Havana. Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba.
  Generation of Mentors. National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.
1993 In Out of the Cold. Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA.
  Fibers: USA Today. Nederlands Textile Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands. Museum of Applied Arts, Helsinki, Finland.
1992 500 Years: With the Breath of Our Ancestors. Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
1989 Forty Years of California Assemblage. Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles,CA.
1988 Art As A Verb. The Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
  The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
  The Poetic Object. San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX. Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID. Art Museum of Amarillo, TX.
  Lost and Found in California: Four decades of Assemblage Art, (the Narrative). Shoshanna Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
  Frontiers in Fiber: The Americans. North Dakota Museum of Art, ND. Toured two years in Asia.
1987 Sculpture Trends of the 80’s. The Queen’s Museum, Flushing, NY.
  The Afro-American Artist in the Age of Pluralism. Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ.
  Passages: A Survey of California Women Artists, Part II. Fresno Center & Museum, Fresno, CA.
1986 Art Expressions in Paper. Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles, CA.
1985 Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade 1963-1973. Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
1984 Return of the Narrative. Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA.
1983 On & Off the Wall: Shaped & Colored. Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.
  Visions: Margit Omar/Betye Saar. Mt. St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles, CA.
1982 Ritual & Myth. Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
1977 Paintings & Sculpture in California: The Modern Era. National Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
1976 20th Century Black American Artists. San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA.
1975 Collage & Assemblage. Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.
1973 Women Artists in the Museum Collection. University Art Museum, UC Berkeley, CA.

 

Awards & Honors

1999 National Artist Award, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass, CO.
1997-1998 The Visual Artists Award, The Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena, CA.
1995 Honorary Doctorate Degrees: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
Honorary Doctorate Degrees: Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA.
1993 Distinguished Artist Award, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA.
1992 James Van Der Zee Award, Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, PA.
Honorary Doctorate Degrees: Otis/Parson Los Angeles, CA.
Honorary Doctorate Degrees: San Francisco Art Institute, CA.
1991 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Honorary Doctorate Degree, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA.
1990 J. Paul Getty Fund for the Visual Arts Fellowship.
22nd Annual Artist Award, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
1984/74 National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Bibliography

• Barlow, Margaret. Women Artists. (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. 1999)
pp. 279, 280, 285, 286.
• Clothier, Pete, The Other Side of the Past. exhibition catalog Betye Saar: In Context. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA 1984.
• Collins, Lizzetta LeFalle, Surviving Servitude, exhibition catalog Betye Saar In Service: A Version of Survival. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York 2000
• Collins, Lizzetta LeFalle, Personal Icons and Crystallizing Forms: The Recent Work of Betye Saar, exhibition catalog Personal Icons. Exhibits USA, Kansas City, MO. 1995
• Collins, Lizzetta LeFalle, The Poetics of Politics, Iconography and Spirituality,
exhibition catalog The Art of Betye Saar and John Otterbridge, United States Information Agency, The 22nd International Bienial of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1994.
• Collins, Lizzetta LeFalle, Betye Saar: A Pathway To The Secret Heart. exhibition catalog Fresno Art Museum, CA. 1993.
• McGrady, Patrick J. Betye Saar: Tangled Roots, exhibition brochure. Palmer Museum of Art, University of Pennsylvania, PA., 1996.
• Miller, Lynn F. & Swenson, Sally S., Lives & Works: Talks With Women Artists. (The Scarecrow Press Inc., 1991) pp. 176-184
• The Museum of Contemporary Art, Betye Saar, exhibition catalog The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.,1984.
• Nemser, Cindy. Art Talk: Conversations with 15 Women in Art. Icons, Editions, 1975-1995, revised. pp. 320-331.
• Patton, Sharon F. African American Art. (Oxford History of Art, Oxford University Press NY 1998) pp.200-3, 201, 202, 204, 210, 256
• Sills, Leslie. Vision: Stories about Women Artists. (Albert Whitman & Co., IL. 1993). pp. 33-45.
• Taha, Halima. Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas. (Brown Publishers, Inc. NY) pp. 35, 81, 99, 175, 196, 208
• The Southern California Council of the California Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Generation of Memoirs, exhibition catalog, 1994. pp. 48-53.
• Van Baron, Judith. As Time Goes By, exhibition catalog Pinnacle Gallery, Savannah College of Art & Design, GA, 2000.
• Willette, Jeanne S.M., Stitching Lives: Fabric in the Arts of Betye Saar. Fiberarts, March/April 1977, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 44-48.
• Wright Art Gallery. Secrets, Dialogues, Revelations: The Art of Betye & Alison Saar, exhibition catalog. University of California, Los Angeles, CA. 1990.

 

Selected Museum Collections

 

        Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

        High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.

        Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.

        Kresge Art Museum State University, East Lansing, MI.

        Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

        Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ.

        Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

        Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, NY.

        National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.

        The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

        The New Jersey State Museum, Newark, NJ.

        The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ.

        The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.

        The Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

        The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.

        Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.

        San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA.

        Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA.

        The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.

        Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA.

        University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA.

        University of Massachusetts, Herter Art Gallery, Amherst, MA.

        Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.

        Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

         

Film & Video

1998 Digital Griot: The Art of Betye Saar. CD-ROM,
1997 Voices & Images of California Art. CD-ROM, San Francisco Museum of Art, CA.
1994 Betye & Alison Saar: Conjure Women of the Arts. Linda Freeman, Producer, 28 minutes. Distributed by L & S Video, Inc.
1990 Similar Differences: Betye & Alison Saar. Fellows of Contemporary Art, Long Beach, CA.
1989 Art is a Verb: Group Exhibition. Maryland Institute, College of Art. 28 minutes.
1987 Sculpture of the Eighties. Produced by the Queens Museum, Queens, NY.
1978 Spiritcatcher: The Art of Betye Saar. The Originals: Women in Art Series. Perry Miller Adato, Producer, for WNET New York, NY.

 

Public Art Commissions

1997 Roots & Wings Garden, Public Art find, New York, NY. Collaboration with Alison Saar.
1989 House of the Open Hand, Assemblage/mural @ Broadway-Spring Center, 3rd & Spring Sts., Los Angeles, CA.
1986 On Our Way, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail Station, Miami, FL.
1984 Fast Trax, Newark Train Station, Newark, NJ.
1983 L.A. Energy, 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Miscellaneous / Ordering Information


For updated information, catalogs, exhibition schedules, CDs, and/or general inquiries, contact: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.

 

 

 

Digital Griot: The Art of Betye Saar. CD-ROM, to order:

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
24 West 57th Street
New York, NY. 10019
Tel 212.247.0082
Fax 212.247.0402

Voices & Images of California Art. CD-ROM

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA. 94103
Tel 415.357.4000

Betye & Alison Saar: Conjure Women of the Arts

Distributed by:
L & S Video, Inc.
45 Stornowaye
Chappaqua, NY. 10514
Tel 914.238.9366

Similar Differences: Betye & Alison Saar.

Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E. Ocean Blvd
Long Beach, CA. 90803
Tel 562.439.2119

Art is a Verb

Sheffield Productions
13816 Sunnybrook Road
Phoenix, MD. 21131

Sculpture of the Eighties

Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows, NY. 11368
Tel 718.592.9700

Spiritcatcher: The Art of Betye Saar

Perry Miller Adato, Producer
WNET
New York, NY.