Betye Saar
By Victoria Valentine
WITH HER CENTENNIAL ON THE HORIZON, Betye Saar formed a scholarly committee charged with “preserving, interpreting, and advancing” her artistic legacy, stewarding her vast body of work, and supporting access to her extensive archive for future generations. The Betye Saar Legacy Group includes nine international curators whose longstanding engagement with the artist has yielded exhibitions, publications, and expert insight into her practice and process.
The legacy group was established in collaboration with Roberts Projects, Saar’s longtime gallery in Los Angeles. Members include Christophe Cherix, the incoming director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Mark Godfrey and Zoé Whitley, who co-curated the international traveling exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” which featured works by Saar and benefitted from research within her archives.
A pioneering assemblage artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, Saar turned 99 today. Since the 1960s, she has been collecting found objects such as ships, clocks, scales, bird cages, and Black memorabilia, often combining them with her own drawings, prints, etchings, and vintage family photographs to form sculptural mixed-media works and conceptual installations. Exploring African American identity, spirituality, and the politics of race and gender, her work reflects her own biography and the evolving world around her.
The artist has an incredible amount of work, knowledge, and profound contributions to share. Over the course of her practice, Saar has built an invaluable archive that includes her inventory of found objects and materials, as well as documents, images, and a collection of work ledgers and journals with meticulously recorded notes and sketches. The archive is in the process of being digitized and will ultimately be housed at the Getty Research Institute (GRI). The announcement of the acquisition coincided with the launch of GRI’s African American Art History Initiative in 2018.
The Betye Saar Legacy Group includes nine international curators whose longstanding engagement with the artist has yielded exhibitions, publications, and expert insight into her practice and process.
Legacy projects already underway include a catalogue raisonné embarked upon by Roberts Projects in 2016 and a much-anticipated biography of Saar. Authored by Whitley, the book draws on the archive and is expected to be published in 2027.
The Legacy Group is comprised of Esther Adler, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.; Carlo Barbatti, Exhibition Curator, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy; Christophe Cherix, Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. (Director as of September 2025); Carol S. Eliel, Senior Curator Emerita, Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Calif.; Mark Godfrey, Independent Curator and Art Historian, London; Diana Seave Greenwald, William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Mass.; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Stephanie Seidel, Monica and Blake Grossman Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Fla.; and Zoé Whitley, Independent Curator and Art Historian, London, UK.
“I am very excited about the formation of the Betye Saar Legacy Group,” Saar said in a statement. “Over the years I have worked with all of the members and they each have gathered a unique bit of know-how, a particular insight, about my creative process. I look forward to future projects with this special group of individuals that I consider not just colleagues but also my friends.” CT