Alison Saar
(b. 1956)1983–84 Artist in ResidenceAlison Saar works in sculpture and printmaking to explore spirituality, mythology, personal history, and African diasporic cultures.
Biography
The child of two artists, Saar grew up surrounded by the visual arts. Her mother, Betye Saar, is an assemblage artist who works in themes of spirituality, race, and gender, which introduced Saar to these subjects. Her father, Richard Saar, was a ceramicist and art conservator. Assisting in his restoration shop exposed Saar to artifacts, and therefore cultures, from around the world. Both of her parents’ practices show up in her own work. Her sisters are visual artist Lezley Saar and writer Tracye Saar.
In 1978, Saar obtained a BA in art history from Scripps College in Claremont, California, where she also studied studio art. In 1981, she obtained an MFA from Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Soon after, in 1983, Saar began a one-year residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, during which she began incorporating found objects into her works. In 1987, Saar completed a residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, just three years after her mother Betye participated herself. During the residency, Saar began printing on fabrics such as silk and linen. In 1998, Saar received a Painters and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and she later completed a 2013 Joan Mitchell Center Residency.
At the Studio Museum in Harlem, Saar participated in the exhibitions including In Profile (2015) ,The Bearden Project (2012), Material and Matter (2001), Passages: Contemporary Art in Transition (1999–2000), The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (1990), The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s (1990), and From the Studio: Former Artists-in-Residence, 1984 (1984–85). She entered the Museum’s permanent collection in 1987.
Exhibitions and Events
Alison Saar
(b. 1956)1983–84 Artist in ResidenceAlison Saar works in sculpture and printmaking to explore spirituality, mythology, personal history, and African diasporic cultures.
Caldonia, 1995
Biography
The child of two artists, Saar grew up surrounded by the visual arts. Her mother, Betye Saar, is an assemblage artist who works in themes of spirituality, race, and gender, which introduced Saar to these subjects. Her father, Richard Saar, was a ceramicist and art conservator. Assisting in his restoration shop exposed Saar to artifacts, and therefore cultures, from around the world. Both of her parents’ practices show up in her own work. Her sisters are visual artist Lezley Saar and writer Tracye Saar.
In 1978, Saar obtained a BA in art history from Scripps College in Claremont, California, where she also studied studio art. In 1981, she obtained an MFA from Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Soon after, in 1983, Saar began a one-year residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, during which she began incorporating found objects into her works. In 1987, Saar completed a residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, just three years after her mother Betye participated herself. During the residency, Saar began printing on fabrics such as silk and linen. In 1998, Saar received a Painters and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and she later completed a 2013 Joan Mitchell Center Residency.
At the Studio Museum in Harlem, Saar participated in the exhibitions including In Profile (2015) ,The Bearden Project (2012), Material and Matter (2001), Passages: Contemporary Art in Transition (1999–2000), The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (1990), The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s (1990), and From the Studio: Former Artists-in-Residence, 1984 (1984–85). She entered the Museum’s permanent collection in 1987.
Exhibitions and Events