Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflected Black identity, has died at 99

Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflected Black identity, has died at 99 1 of 3 | Artist Betye Saar of Los Angeles at home on her back patio on April 22, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP) 2 of 3 | Betye Saar poses at her studio in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, in 2026. (David Sprague/Artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles via AP) 3 of 3 | Artist Betye Saar is photographed at her home in Laurel Canyon on June 30, 2026. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times via AP) 1 of 3 | Artist Betye Saar of Los Angeles at home on her back patio on April 22, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP) 1 of 3 Artist Betye Saar of Los Angeles at home on her back patio on April 22, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 2 of 3 | Betye Saar poses at her studio in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, in 2026. (David Sprague/Artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles via AP) 2 of 3 Betye Saar poses at her studio in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, in 2026. (David Sprague/Artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 3 of 3 | Artist Betye Saar is photographed at her home in Laurel Canyon on June 30, 2026. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times via AP) 3 of 3 Artist Betye Saar is photographed at her home in Laurel Canyon on June 30, 2026. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflected Black identity, culture and spirituality, died Sunday morning in Los Angeles at 99. Saar’s death was confirmed Monday by relatives. She would have turned 100 this week.A central figure of the 1960’s Black Art Movement, Saar pioneered assemblage, or sculptures made of found objects, and reclaimed Jim Crow-era memorabilia as powerful totems of Black liberation. “Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists,” according to Roberts Projects, the Los Angeles gallery that represents her. Saar began her career in design and shifted to art at age 35. She continued to make art into her 90s. She grew up in Pasadena and was part of a community of Black artists in nearby Altadena; she often cited Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers as an early source of inspiration. “Her appropriation of Black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion,” the gallery said. “Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach.”Saar’s practice incorporated painting, printmaking, sculpture and found objects including dolls, washboards and other antiques. 1 MIN READ 2 MIN READ 5 MIN READ Made in 1969, “Black Girl’s Window,” was groundbreaking. Still, it wasn’t widely celebrated until decades later, and it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2019. “There weren’t that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren’t any for Black artists,” she once said in an interview. “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” created in 1972, is another one of her most important works. It features memorabilia she collected that denigrated Black people, included a “mammy,” or 19th century minstrel character who smiled while serving white slave owners. In Saar’s hands though, the figure is reclaimed: She smiles, but holds a rifle and a hand grenade. “That was done as an answer to the killing of Dr. King,” said Angela Robinson Witherspoon, in reference to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. “She was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement.” The Aunt Jemima brand was part of Quaker Oats for more than 130 years. The company announced in 2020 that it would retire the brand, recognizing the logo’s origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”“I think that she had boundless energy for making art. I think she had a lot to say and was tired of the art world being dominated by white males,” said Robinson Witherspoon, who produced and directed a documentary in 2023 on her. “Betye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior” features interviews with John Legend, Tina Knowles and other prominent voices. Though Saar’s work was exhibited in a 1975 solo show at the Whitney Museum, large institutions have exhibited her work only sporadically over the decades. In 2019 though, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and MoMA mounted concurrent solo shows.Saar taught and mentored a generation of Black artists, including painter Kerry James Marshall. She’s long been considered a leading figure of the West Coast arts landscape. “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,” which focuses on costume design, is currently on view at Robert Projects.Associated Press Writer Anna Furman contributed reporting from Los Angeles.