Betye Saar — the groundbreaking visual artist whose assemblage work reshaped how Black identity and resistance are expressed in American art — died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. Her death came just days before her 100th birthday.
Saar’s career spanned more than six decades. Her impact reached far beyond galleries and museums. She was part of a generation of Black artists who refused to let the nation look away from its history of racist propaganda, negative narratives and stereotypes. Through found objects, family heirlooms, spiritual symbols and everyday artifacts, she built a visual vocabulary that confronted racism, reclaimed history and honored the interior lives of Black women.
Her most recognized work, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972), became a cultural turning point. Saar said the piece began with a small plaque she found of the Aunt Jemima caricature — one hand holding a pencil and an apron designed as a notepad. “I got this idea to make her a warrior,” she explained during an interview with the Berkeley Art Museum in commemoration of the revolutionary piece’s 50th anniversary. “So instead of a pencil, I put a rifle in one hand and the other had a hand grenade.”
She replaced the notepad with a postcard depicting a mammy figure holding a mixed-race child, then placed the assemblage inside a small box lined with Aunt Jemima labels. “I called the piece The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” she said. Saar noted that for generations, these caricatures shaped how African Americans were seen and how they saw themselves. “If you were living during the time they were producing these things, and that was the only image you would have, you would have very little self-esteem. Because you were either a fat mammy, or Uncle Mo, or a pickaninny.”
Saar said she was initially apprehensive about how the piece would be received. But audiences understood its intent. “Everybody appreciated it and they laughed at it — it is a pun,” she said. She created the work in 1972, and later reflected, “Things haven’t changed that much.”
Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Saar grew up during the Great Depression and the Great Migration — eras that shaped her understanding of how objects carry stories. She studied design and printmaking before turning to assemblage. This medium allowed her to merge cultural legacy, mysticism and social commentary with precision and intention. Her work often drew from her own family’s history, including the migration of her relatives from Louisiana to California.
Saar’s pieces appeared in major institutions across the country, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Yet she remained connected to community spaces, teaching, mentoring and reminding younger artists that their lived experiences were worthy of preservation.
Her influence extended across generations. Artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Lorna Simpson, Theaster Gates and her daughters — Alison and Lezley Saar — have cited her as a foundational figure whose work opened doors and expanded possibilities.
Even in her later years, Saar continued creating. Her recent exhibitions explored themes of aging and the passage of time — always with the same clarity and insistence that the nation confront what it often chooses to ignore. Betye Saar leaves behind a body of work that challenged America to face its contradictions and honor its truths. She also leaves a legacy of artists who learned from her example.