Claremont, CA鈥擳he Benton Museum of Art at 麻豆影视 and the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena are pleased to announce the largest museum survey to date of the work of American artist Alison Saar. Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe (through December 19, 2021 at the Benton; July 16鈥揇ecember 12, 2021 at the Armory) includes 29 of the artist鈥檚 multi-media and mixed installation works installed across the two venues. This exhibition spans the broad spectrum of Saar鈥檚 career, from her sculptures of the early 1980s to the large-scale, site-specific commission Imbue, installed at the Benton Museum of Art in the summer of 2020, and a new installation, Hygiea, to be unveiled at the Armory in 2021. Both venues require an appointment to visit the exhibition; reservations can be made at their respective websites, and . The monumental outdoor bronze sculpture at the Benton, Imbue, is accessible without an appointment, and the accompanying exhibition catalogue is also available.
Alison Saar will be in conversation via Zoom with exhibition curators Rebecca McGrew and Irene Georgia Tsatsos on Thursday, July 15 from 6 to 7 pm PST. Please contact Caroline Eastburn at caroline.eastburn@pomona.edu for the link.
Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe showcases fundamental principles of Saar鈥檚 artistic practice: a consistent and continually evolving experimentation with material, and an embodied dialogue between the earthly and the spiritual. Working with and through found objects, bronze, clay, seed and flour sacks, wood, wire, and other materials, Saar exposes the ground between binaries as traditional as body and spirit, sacred and secular, and material and immaterial. The title of the exhibition鈥斺淥f Aether and Earthe鈥濃攕ignals these intersections and is reflected in the organization and installation of the exhibition in the two venues. 鈥淎ether鈥 is the invisible energy that, in some historical and contemporary worldviews, ties together the four conventional elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The Benton presentation, consisting of 13 works, focuses on those rooted in earth and water, and the Armory鈥檚 presentation, of 14 works, features those suggestive of fire, air, and 鈥渁ether.鈥
Saar鈥檚 two- and three-dimensional works explore materiality as they address very contemporary issues of race, gender, and social and political oppression. Her evocation of a deep and violent past is leavened by her invocation of African and Afro-Caribbean deities and objects that offer hope, redemption, and strength. At the Benton Museum of Art, the works on view include the early Voluptuous Mummy of 1982, made in part with the linen scraps from her father鈥檚 art conservation studio. Saar repurposed these fabric strips鈥攖rimmed from paintings her father was relining and reframing鈥攖o wrap a full-length yet compact female figure, the linen obscuring the feminine curves beneath. Rendering the work with humble materials of twine, nails, and found tin and leather, Saar covers the face with an Egyptian-style mask that swings open to reveal a mosaic. A later work, Bitter Crop (2008), is a reclining female form with cotton bolls sprouting from the figure鈥檚 head, a reference to the character of Topsy in Harriet Beecher Stowe鈥檚 Uncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin (1852), described with 鈥渨ooly hair braided in sundry little tails, which stuck out in every direction.鈥 In contrast to the smooth, white marble of traditional art historical nudes, Bitter Crop is an earthly figure in red-brown, a network of webs and marks across the surface of the body. Saar transforms the Civil War鈥揺ra slave into a contemporary heroine, crowned with the cotton bolls that are the symbols of her oppression. Like many of the other works by Saar at the Benton, both of these sculptures are rooted in the earth and the body.
Among the works presented at the Armory is Sapphire (1985), a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, dark-skinned female bust with her hands clasped behind her head, breasts thrust forward. Each breast swings open on a hinge to expose a fiery red candle that illuminates shards of glass in a votive-like interior. The hidden cavity in Sapphire鈥檚 breasts alludes to Central African Bakongo nkisi objects, which harness ethereal energy into charms to mystically attack slaveholders and other enemies. Saar鈥檚 Mammy Machine (2012) is a self-sufficient system in which disembodied breasts never stop lactating, representing the transformation of solids into liquids while also distilling the cultural stereotypes, economic pressures, and interpersonal expectations regarding the role of Black women, and women of color, to nurture constantly.
Saar鈥檚 figures are female; some are trussed, strung up, bent, and bowed, while others are literally elevated by female attributes such as life-giving lactation. This interplay between rage and hope is underscored in every work by a constancy of process. Saar鈥檚 is a very physical art in which her hand鈥攈olding a chisel, a brush, a hammer鈥攊s always visible, the mark of the maker always clear as she clothes myths and archetypes in the detritus of everyday life, manifesting powerful figures from wood, nails, bottles, and other humble and 鈥渇ound鈥 material. As she explained in an interview in The New York Times in November 2020, 鈥淎 lot of my life has been a balancing act between anger and a kind of serenity, and that鈥檚 also reflected in my process.鈥
About the Artist
Alison Saar has long been a part of the creative life of Los Angeles. Born in 1956 to mother Betye (a printmaker and assemblage artist) and father Richard (a ceramicist and art conservator), she was raised primarily in Laurel Canyon. She attributes her interest in found materials to her youth there, writing in the catalogue timeline that 鈥渁t age six, we move to Laurel Canyon, and I begin to forage for roots, stones, and found objects among the ruins of the devastating Laurel Canyon fire of 1959. Having free rein in this semi-rural setting hones my love for flora and fauna.鈥 She graduated from Scripps College in 1978 and received her MFA from the Otis Art Institute of the Parsons School of Design in 1981. Her work has been exhibited from Brooklyn to Senegal, including in the Whitney Biennial of 1993; a solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, that same year; and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Saar has completed more than a dozen public commissions, including a memorial to Harriet Tubman in Harlem, New York, and Embodied, an evocation of justice outside the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice. Saar is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among other awards. Saar is represented by L.A. Louver in Venice, California.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition is co-curated by Rebecca McGrew at the Benton Museum of Art at 麻豆影视 and Irene Tsatsos at the Armory Center for the Arts. It is accompanied by a catalogue, Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe, co-edited by McGrew and Tsatsos and featuring contributions by Camille Dungy, McGrew, Harryette Mullen, Christina Sharpe, Evie Shockley, and Tsatsos. This project is part of the .
Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe is sponsored by the Fellows of Contemporary Art. The Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA) awarded the 2020 Curator鈥檚 Award to Rebecca McGrew and Irene Tsatsos as co-curators of this exhibition. This award underwrites the cost of the exhibitions and scholarly catalogues of California artists developed by California curators for major museums and other art venues.
Pasadena Art Alliance provided major support for the installation of Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe at the Armory, with additional support provided by Betsy Greenberg. Exhibition public programs at the Armory are supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency. At Pomona, additional support comes from the Janet Inskeep Benton 鈥79 Endowed Fund, the Carlton Seaver Fund, the Dr. Lucille M. Paris Endowment, and the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund.
About the Collaborators
Now housed in the new Benton Museum of Art designed by Machado Silvetti and Gensler, 麻豆影视鈥檚 collection of art numbers 15,000 objects, including Italian Renaissance paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; works on paper, including a first edition print series by Francisco Goya given by Norton Simon; and works in various media produced in Southern California in the twentieth century. In keeping with 麻豆影视鈥檚 reputation as a leading center of the visual arts, the collection also includes works by such esteemed alumni as Chris Burden (鈥69), Marcia Hafif (鈥51), Helen Pashgian (鈥56), Peter Shelton (鈥73), and James Turrell (鈥65). Recognized globally for its commitment to contemporary art, the museum is the home of The Project Series, which has featured more than 50 contemporary Southern California artists since it began in 1999. Through its collaboration with students and faculty, the museum encourages active learning and creative exploration across all disciplines of study within the liberal arts context. For more information, call (909) 621-8283 or visit .
The Armory Center for the Arts, in Pasadena, California, is one of the Los Angeles region鈥檚 leading independent institutions for contemporary art and community arts education. The Armory believes that an understanding and appreciation of the arts is essential for a well-rounded human experience and a healthy civic community. The organization鈥檚 board and staff are committed to holding deep conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion; and acknowledge that these efforts are ongoing, a process of growth, and require intense self-reflection and collective consideration. Under Covid-19, and in keeping with these institutional practices, the Armory has deepened and expanded its programmatic reach to include online exhibition programs and artmaking classes, along with hands-on art activities safely delivered in-person to those with limited digital access. For more information on the Armory Center for the Arts, visit .
The Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA) is a non-profit, independent, and membership-based organization that supports contemporary art in California. For more information on FOCA, call (213) 808-1008 or visit .