Photo of collection object Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail
Saar, Betye. Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail, 1973. Glass, paper, textile, metal, Overall: 12 1/2 × 5 3/4 in. (31.8 × 14.6 cm). Purchased with funds given by Elizabeth A. Sackler, gift of the Contemporary Art Committee, and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2017.17. © artist or artist's estate.

Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail

1973

Betye Saar

American, born 1926

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Betye Saar was a prominent member of the Black Arts Movement. Drawing from diverse cultural associations, and influenced both by self-taught artist Simon Rodia’s massive sculptural installation Watts Towers, constructed in the 1960s in her hometown, and by the intimate found-object constructions of American modernist Joseph Cornell, Saar developed a politically potent and personally meaningful practice rooted in assemblage. In Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail Saar transforms a Gallo wine jug, a 1970s marker of middle-class sophistication, into a tool for Black liberation. For Sacred Symbols fifteen years later she transfigures the detritus one might find in the junk drawer of any home into a composition with spiritual overtones.
Maker/Artist
Saar, Betye
Classification
Sculpture
Formatted Medium
Glass, paper, textile, metal
Dimensions
Overall: 12 1/2 × 5 3/4 in. (31.8 × 14.6 cm)
Accession Number
2017.17
Credit Line
Purchased with funds given by Elizabeth A. Sackler, gift of the Contemporary Art Committee, and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund
Rights Statement
© artist or artist's estate
Dominant Colors

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