A rare peek at the early practice of Betye Saar

“Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica” has generated substantial buzz throughout Chicago since its opening at the Art Institute of Chicago late last year. Though the exhibition’s exploration of the Afro-diasporic solidarity movement has ended, its themes continue to reverberate at the Neubauer Collegium’s “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,” which dives into the realization of Pan-Africanism through an oft-overlooked facet of Saar’s work.

Widely known for her assemblage artworks, Saar’s early practice conveyed the “‘Africanized’ goals of merging life and art.” In the 1960s–70s, the years from which this work is drawn, Saar remained committed to exploring the sacred and ancestral properties of objects and artworks that held the potential of evoking a new consciousness for Black folks. This desire to explore a Black consciousness and spirituality through art was made real for Saar after a 1974 visit to the Field Museum, where she experienced African art in a way that she never had before, noting the spiritual presence and connection within the work, very much aligned with the goals of Pan-Africanism. This excitement is evident in a small vitrine to the right of the gallery’s entrance; in it are her handcrafted jewelry, several photos of herself and family wearing the work, and a sketchbook filled with colorful notations and drawings, documenting the trip and conveying the feeling and spiritual presence she experienced within the museum’s walls.

A close up photo of a small blue notebook. A page reads Places at the bottom, and above it are handwritten exhibitions Saar visited in the 1970s. Another archival notebook is partially visible to its right. All sit on a white table. — During a 1974 visit to the Field Museum, Saae experienced African art in a way that she never had before.
Credit: Robert Heishman

Though the exhibition boasts the importance of her trip to the Field Museum, the connection to Pan-Africanism is evidenced through the guts of the vitrine, which holds album covers designed by Saar and relics from her time as a costume designer, including colorful sketches, playbills, and posters from several plays that took place at Los Angeles’s Inner City Theatre, a space dedicated to performers and audiences dually excluded from access to mainstream performing arts venues. Interestingly, most of these items are dated before 1974, which signals that the themes she was exploring had lived within her practice before her trip to the Field. Perhaps this trip was the spark that allowed language to match what she had always known to be true of her practice. After all, as she noted during a visit to the exhibition for Panafrica Days, “I started making art as a child, and I still make it. I don’t think it’s anything special, but I have fun doing it.”

“Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar”
Through 4/27: Mon–Fri 9 AM–4 PM, Neubauer Collegium, 5701 S. Woodlawn, neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu//exhibitions/betye-saar