User:Hopefullee123/sandbox

Saar was raised by her Aunt Hattie and she influenced her identity of a black women. Saar described her Aunt as a women with dignity, posie and women which impacts her depiction of the black female body; this is evident in a work Saar dedicated to her Aunt titled, Record For Hattie, 1972. Saar’s rejection of white feminism pushed her artistic focus on the black male but in the 1970s she shifted her focus onto the black female body. The Record For Hattie is a mixed media assemblage piece made from an antique jewelry box inside the top of the jewelry box there is a broken picture frame of a faded picture of women to represent her Aunt Hattie and surrounding the picture frame are sewn in rosey materials and a red white pednet of a star and crescent moon. In the bottom of the jewelry box there is a metal cross on the right side and in the middle there is a red leather wallet and on top is an image of child on the left there are sewing materials. Throughout America history there has been a feshitazation and eroticization of the black female body. During the 1970s Saar was responding to this racist narrative by reclaiming the black female body. Saar’s work resisted to fall into the artistic style of primitivism (use hyperlink to define) and part of her resistance is the rejection of the white feminism movement that refused to address the issues of race. Saar’s work is the convergence of black power, spirituality and mysticism, and feminism. This is evident in Betye Saar’s Black’s Girls Window, 1969, it is an assemblage piece made from an old window with hinges a dark painted silhouette of a girl with her eyes starring outerward and her face and hands pressed against the window pane. Above the girl’s head are nine smaller window panes arranged three by three displaying various symbols and images, such as moons and stars, a howling wolf, a sketched skeleton, an eagle, with the word “love” across it chest  and tintype woman.

Sources Prabhu, Vas. “Instructional Resources: Contemporary Art: Familiar Objects in New Contexts.” Art Education, vol. 43, no. 4, 1990, pp. 25–32. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3193213.

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/betye-saar-record-for-hattie

Dallow, Jessica. “Reclaiming Histories: Betye and Alison Saar, Feminism, and the Representation of Black Womanhood.” Feminist Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, 2004, pp. 75–113. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3178559.

Farrington, Lisa E. “Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude.” Woman's Art Journal, vol. 24, no. 2, 2003, pp. 15–23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1358782.

 Betye Saar 

Letter-Protest Campaign against Kara Walker (Caroline Jones' section: Add new section to Betye Saar’s article/The Anti Campaign against Kara Walker is not mentioned on Betye Saar’s Wikipedia page)


 * Kara Walker is known for controversial and new approaches to her installations in 1990’s
 * Add example of her installation, exhibit and a specific of artwork
 * Plan on discussing about Walker’s controversial artworks such as Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994), and The End of Uncle Tom and Grand Allegorical Tableau of Eva in Heaven (1995)
 * Shocking images that her critics say bolster racist and stereotypical images of African Americans
 * Saar who is 40 years older than Walker, and therefore, their generations differ in style and content.
 * Plan on discussing Walker differing approach versus Saar’s approach to feminist artwork subject
 * Gives examples of how this divide can be seen as generational
 * Walker’s interpretation of African American divided viewers’ interpretation of her artwork
 * Give both sides: what one group
 * African-American artists such as Betye Saar and Howardena Pindell were vocal and disagreed with Walker’s approach
 * In a NPR Radio interview, Saar “felt the work of Kara Walker was sort of revolting and negative and a form of betrayal to the slaves, particularly woman and children, and that it was basically for the amusement and the investment of the white art establishment.”
 * Overall, Saar felt that Kara Walker betraying the black artists and womanhood.
 * Possibly give as description of Pindell’s individual and instant reaction to Walker’s body of artwork
 * Kara Walker is different from early feminist artists like Saar
 * Plan on giving examples
 * Although both artists had criticism for Walker’s installation, Walker was the 1997 receipt of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation genius award
 * White critics/white artistic powers would then say that the reinforcement of African American stereotypes worked!
 * The establishment gave her the award to congratulate themselves on their “liberal” status.
 * They could be revolted by her images, but congratulate themselves on their ability to embrace awful images
 * Plan on giving description of the award or hyperlink the award
 * Very upset by the consideration of the award, Pindell and Saar wrote a letter to Kara Walker, protesting her Walker’s installation and being receipt of the award
 * Plan on giving more information on their protest letter
 * Add direct quotes from the letter

References:

Wall, David. "Transgression, Excess, and the Violence of Looking in the Art of Kara Walker." Oxford Art Journal 33, no. 3 (2010): 279-99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40983288.

Derek Conrad Murray; Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw: Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker. Nka1 May 2007; 2007 (21): 130–131. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-21-1-130

"Introduction: Kara Walker-No/Yes/?". Howardena Pindell. Retrieved 2019-04-04

Pindell, Howardena. Diaspora/Strategies/Realities.

Betye Saar and Feminism: Adding New Section

Rejection of White Feminism: Saar’s rejection white feminism pushed her artistic focus on the black male body in the 1970s she  shifted her focus onto the black female body During the 1970s Betye Saar explores black femininity Race and gender coming together during this time period Showcasing black women with dignity, posie and wisdom; Saar was raised by her Aunt and this influenced how she depicted black women in her works - Instructional Resources: Contemporary Art: Familiar Objects in New Objects

Reclaiming the Black Female Body Saar resisted to erotizce the black body -- resisted to fall into primitivism Resistance is the rejection of white feminism Convergence of black power and feminism Betye & Alison Saar Feminism pg.79

Influence Alison Saar Themes that align with Betye Saar: reconfiguring the black female body through spirituality and using this as a mode of resistance of white feminism - Mama Mambo 1985 Displays black female nude in the narrative of strength Alison has similar uses of symbolism and themes when representing the black female nude-- use of African spirituality, resistance to erotocisim and challenging the sterotypucal images of the black women pop culture Reinventing Herself : The Black Female Nude pg. 18

Betye’s viewer: The Universal Experience “Universal” experience for viewers -- black mother and Irish father --- she doesn’t want to be P. 84 Addresses white feminism, but does not want to cornered into Black art “I want to talk about other “stuff” Transcending the “black aesthetic”

Assemblage and Installation: Add to Assemblage and Installation Saar started her work with interior design and then moved into assemblage Learned the manipulation of space and practicality of objects in spaces Betye Saar pg. 6 Jane H. Carpenter