Bettye Saar

Betye Saar was born in Los Angeles in 1926. As a child, she watched the progress of Simon Rodia's monumental Watts Towers, which fueled her lifelong interest in the use of discarded and recycled materials. Saar studied art at the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated in 1949. She then took classes in graphic design and printmaking at California State University, Long Beach, from 1958 to 1962. It was during this time that she first saw the boxed assemblages of the artist Joseph Cornell, who became another profound influence. In the late 1960s Saar began collecting images of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, Little Black Sambo, and other stereotyped African American figures from folk culture and advertising. She incorporated them...