Making the invisible visible: Betye Saar’s legacy lives on in Philadelphia

Los Angeles-based artist Betye Saar died on July 26, just days short of her 100th birthday. A champion of the advancement of all underserved and underrecognized female artists, her assertive and sometimes combative spirit mirrored that of other African American artist-activists of her generation, such as Elizabeth Catlett and Samella Lewis, who fought racism and the oppressive nature of an arts ecosystem that fostered white male dominance.

While Saar’s glowing presence will be missed, she leaves a legacy of art that is connected to Philadelphia in both actual and symbolic ways.

Saar spent time here as a visiting artist in printmaking at Philly’s Brandywine Workshop and Archives in 1989, and again in 1992, when she was also a recipient of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Across seven decades, her creative efforts in assemblage and printmaking foretold the evolution of what art is or could be — by contributing to an evolving medium and studio practice that relied upon salvaging memories and emotions embedded in discarded, everyday objects and materials.

Saar described herself as a scavenger: always looking down in order to find useful materials for her artmaking. At flea markets and swap meets, Saar would source images that portrayed African Americans in grotesque and negative narratives, which she would then use and recontextualize in her art assemblages and prints.

This process of “scavenging” also informs the two mixed-media prints she created at Brandywine, LA Sky with Spinning Hearts (1989) and Mystic Sky with Self-Portrait (1992).

Saar and her contemporaries, Catlett and Lewis (who were also visiting artists and Brandywine Lifetime awardees), experienced long, impactful careers during which high recognition came extremely late. This was an indicator of the market’s exclusionary agenda and inability to grapple with and comprehend their artistic talent and messaging. Despite the market and cultural biases and professional disadvantages of being people of color, women, and mothers (Saar’s daughters, Alison and Lezley, are also artists), they demonstrated a vision of social responsibility and aesthetic investigation highlighted by quality craftsmanship.

While Catlett’s and Lewis’ work in a variety of media focused on figurative art in the modernist tradition, all three can be described as social realists because of their dedication to sharing their life experiences and those of other African Americans. The themes of their art reflect ethnic identity and pride, while also conveying social messages — resistance and resilience. Collectively, they made the invisible visible.

In the present cultural and historical environment, where censorship by politicians and uncertain economics place extraordinary demands on individual artists and the institutions that serve them, the commitment of community-minded artists seeking social justice is most reflected in the art and activism of women in the arts. These include major curator-historians such as Leslie King Hammond and Deborah Willis (raised in Philly), as well as young scholars such as Tatiana Reinoza at the University of Notre Dame and Imani Roach and Heather Hughes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — all affiliated in some manner with Brandywine.

Institutions such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and Philly’s own Colored Girls Museum are centers for cultural exchange and discourse about the role of art and narratives being shared through the contemporary expressions of female artists.

Saar and other female artists of her generation in places like Cuba, Mexico, and other nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have been among the leaders demanding greater empowerment of women in the arts and culture sector, and society as a whole.

What connects the legacy of African American female artists with the struggle for social justice, women’s rights, and financial equity is the global struggle among women for political and economic empowerment. The COVID-19 pandemic and #MeToo movement have highlighted the disparities women face in gaining assistance and recognition. Attacks on abortion rights and the mass removal of undocumented immigrants, especially women with children, have exacerbated efforts to afford greater respect and opportunity for women in general.

In the United States, the 1960s Civil Rights Movement opened the door to advance the women’s rights and human rights movements. Today, women make up the majority of students on college campuses (56%). The employment population ratio for women was 54.4% as of June. Women hold 155 seats combined in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. There are 14 female governors, and — following a national trend — Philadelphia has elected its first female mayor, notably an African American.

While the statistics show progress, women, especially artists, think globally and connect globally. Advancement of women in the visual arts has been marked by the increase in women of all ethnic backgrounds receiving art history degrees with a focus on diverse art across the globe. Many now research and lecture on the diasporas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and how cultures move through migration patterns. Their art, writings, and instruction demonstrate how contemporary art exists within a global community with transnational identities.

Saar’s legacy endures through the great art she left the world to enjoy and to engage with its profound social commentary.

But in addition to that material legacy, her resilient spirit and passion to create — in a space that was not welcoming to mothers, women of color, or professionals who sought to disrupt the status quo — are qualities to emulate. Her spirit lives on in the City of Brotherly Love in the growing generation of female leaders of local museums and galleries building collections of art created by women.

Allan L. Edmunds is an artist, a retired educator and arts administrator, and the founder of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. Haeley Green is an AUC Collective intern at Spelman College in Atlanta.