Betye Saar, Trailblazing Assemblage Artist Who Liberated Aunt Jemima, Dies at 99
Betye Saar, a Los Angeles-based artist renowned for transforming racist bric-a-brac into provocative assemblages that confronted America's racial history, died in her sleep at 99—just days before her 100th birthday. Her groundbreaking 1972 piece The Liberation of Aunt Jemima helped ignite the Black Arts Movement and empower Black women, and Saar continued to influence generations of artists and exhibitions, leaving a lasting legacy in major museums and among her family and collaborators.
