Betye Saar and Alison Saar, Los Angeles, circa 1980

Description: Alison Saar is an African American artist who seeks to clearly communicate her ideas and emotions through the power of form. Her sculptures have their own personal vocabulary that speaks in a direct language about history, race, and mythology. Her works tell the stories of the African American experience over time and space. She is the daughter of assemblage artist Betye Saar.
Portrait of artists Betye Saar and Alison Saar (right).
Betye Saar’s is an African American artist whose work mixes surreal, symbolic imagery with a folk art aesthetic. As a participant in the robust African-American Los Angeles art scene of the 1970s, Saar appropriated characters such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, and other stereotypes from folk culture and advertising in her works—usually collages and assemblages. She is the mother of sculpture artist Alison Saar.