Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer

Betye Saar (b. 1926) is an artist whose assemblages tell visual stories and convey powerful political messages. This book explores how travel influenced the work of renowned contemporary artist Betye Saar, featuring original interviews with Saar and essays by leading scholars. It also provides a fresh look at a groundbreaking American artist while offering a timely social history of the impact of travel on the African American experience.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 04 April 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Betye Saar, a renowned contemporary artist, has explored the profound influence of travel on her artistic journey. Through her assemblages, she weaves visual narratives that convey powerful political messages. Born in 1926, Saar emerged as a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement during the 1970s. She harnesses the power of found objects, many of which she collects during her extensive travels, to delve into themes such as symbolic mysticism, feminism, racism, and Eurocentric chauvinism.

Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer, a captivating book, delves into Saar's creative process, global travels, and the profound ways in which her artworks engage with the histories of travel and forced migration. It showcases how her art evokes the immersive experience of embarking on a distant voyage. This beautifully illustrated publication draws upon original, in-depth interviews with Saar and her companions, who accompanied her on her journeys across four continents over several decades. Essays by esteemed scholars provide contextualization, placing Saar's journeys within her broader life and career, as well as exploring how her practice aligns with broader traditions in African American visual culture, such as scrapbooking.

Furthermore, the book explores how Saar's assemblage practice both echoes and offers a critical counterpoint to the collecting practices of Gilded Age American art collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner. It features a wealth of previously unpublished material, including nearly thirty travel sketchbooks and two dozen finished assemblages, providing a fresh perspective on a groundbreaking American artist. At the same time, it offers a timely social history of the impact of travel on the African American experience.

Distributed by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer is a testament to the enduring influence of travel on artistic expression. The exhibition schedule for this captivating exhibition is as follows:

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Exhibition Schedule:

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Weight: 1270g
Dimension: 212 x 340 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691973852