{"id":965029,"date":"2026-07-28T17:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:44:19","slug":"essential-artworks-by-betye-saar-that-represent-her-fearless-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965029\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential artworks by Betye Saar that represent her fearless vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> <\/p>\n

Originally exhibited in 1984 by the Museum of Contemporary Art in a small brick building across from the Temporary Contemporary, \u201cOasis\u201d was the second half of a two-part solo exhibition staged by the museum that fall. The first half included 48 assemblages from 1967 to the present, and the second half was \u201cOasis,\u201d a large-scale, site-specific work that took up the whole room. It featured a futuristic barren desert-like landscape filled with sand punctuated by large colored glass bulbs that resemble marbles. A small pink wicker chair sits at the center of the creation, unoccupied and windswept. At the time, Saar told The Times that the installation was \u201cabout dualities and how they dovetail,\u201d but it was more than that. It represents a leap in the evolution of Saar\u2019s work \u2014 her smaller scale imaginings now writ large.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break,\u201d 1998. This tableau of an ironing board in front of a sheet monogrammed with the letters \u201cKKK,\u201d made a profound statement about racism in America.<\/p>\n

(Museum Associates \/ LACMA \/ Betye Saar \/ Roberts Projects)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll Bend But I Will Not Break,\u201d 1998 <\/p>\n

One of Saar\u2019s most powerful works is held in the permanent collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was featured in the inaugural exhibition of its new David Geffen Galleries <\/a>when it opened last Spring. The deceptively simple work is part sculpture, part assemblage, part collage and features a vintage wooden ironing board set beside a white sheet hung on a line with six wooden clothespins. A closer look reveals that the sheet is appliqu\u00e9d with the letters KKK, and the iron is chained to the board. The board also bears an imprint featuring the British slave ship Brookes with a Black mammy superimposed over it. Taken together, the collection of images makes a profound statement about slavery, forced labor and continuing racism in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> Originally exhibited in 1984 by the Museum of Contemporary Art in a small brick building across from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":965030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1037,387796,259644,387798,1582,276,22630,9177,387797,18518,2961,224,5337,994,387800,581,637,387799,45000,8066],"class_list":["post-965029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-art","tag-assemblage-artist","tag-betye-saar","tag-black-girl","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-collage","tag-exhibition","tag-famous-piece","tag-glass","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-moon","tag-shadowed-face","tag-star","tag-times","tag-various-image","tag-window","tag-work"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116998851258568620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}