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

Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflects 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 1960s Black Art Movement, Saar pioneered assemblage boxes, or sculptures made of found objects, and reclaimed Jim Crow-era memorabilia as powerful totems of Black liberation.

鈥淗er 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,鈥� 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 ; she often cited Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers as an early source of inspiration.

Saar鈥檚 practice incorporated painting, printmaking, sculpture and found objects including dolls, washboards and other antiques. Boats, clocks, cages and altars recur in her practice, as well as symbols of the occult and cosmology. She often referenced her astrological sign of Leo in the form of lions, punctuating many works.

鈥淗er appropriation of Black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion,鈥� the gallery said. 鈥淎mong the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach.鈥�

Made in 1969, 鈥淏lack Girl鈥檚 Window,鈥� 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. 鈥淭here weren鈥檛 that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren鈥檛 any for Black artists,鈥� she once .

鈥淭he Liberation of Aunt Jemima,鈥� created in 1972, is one of her most important works. It features memorabilia she collected that denigrated Black people, included a 鈥渕ammy,鈥� 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 has a hand grenade.

It came in response to the 1968 assassination of the in Memphis, Tennessee. Saar King’s death 鈥渢riggered a rage within me, and the mystic transformed into the warrior.鈥�

鈥淚 had a lot of hesitation about using powerful, negative images such as these 鈥� thinking about how white people saw Black people, and how that influenced the ways in which Black people saw each other,鈥� Saar said. 鈥淲hat saved it was that I made Aunt Jemima into a revolutionary figure.鈥�

After more than 130 years, Quaker Oat announced it would in 2020, acknowledging the logo and its origins were 鈥渂ased on a racial stereotype.鈥�

Saar taught and mentored generations of Black artists, including .

Though Saar鈥檚 work was exhibited in a 1975 solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in the decades that followed large institutions have exhibited her work only sporadically. In 2019 though, the and MoMA mounted concurrent solo shows.

In spring 2026, Saar was inducted to the

鈥淪he 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,鈥� said Angela Robinson Witherspoon, who produced and directed a documentary in 2023 on Saar’s life. 鈥淏etye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior鈥� features interviews with John Legend, Tina Knowles and other prominent voices.

鈥淪he was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement,鈥� Robinson Witherspoon said.

鈥淟et鈥檚 Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,鈥� which focuses on costume design, is currently on view at Robert Projects in Los Angeles, and a collection of more than 100 of her dolls are on view at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan.

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Associated Press Writer Anna Furman contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

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