Home Exhibition Virtual TourBetye Saar, "Now You Cookin’ with Gas,"

Betye Saar, "Now You Cookin’ with Gas,"

Transcript of this podcast:

Now You Cookin’ with Gas by artist Betye Saar.is part of the Bookmarks serigraph in the Pages of Life Series by the artist, which contains six prints in all.

This print --one of these six pages --depicts a collage-like, small scene. Measuring 11.5" x 7.75" inches, each print is barely larger than a textbook. Its size requires us to move close to perceive its image, producing a strong intimacy between the narrative and the viewer. We see three standing figures. Two men in suits and hats stand on a sidewalk, framed in a central image. There is a photographic image of a woman wearing a purple dress that looks pasted onto the background of the image. She stands against a blue background which looks like apartment windows in a repeating pattern. Slightly away from the main central scene, she could be qualified as an “in between” character: witnessing the action, but somehow finding herself closer to the viewer.

What are the Bookmarks in the Pages of Life?

Presented also in the gallery are the 5 other prints from the folio, and the bound book: one volume with six serigraphs on handmade paper housed in a brown linen clamshell case; the book was edited at 300 copies. It is signed and numbered in pencil on a colophon page, and originally published by the Limited Editions Club, in NY. In the portfolio, Betye Saar interprets stories by Zora Neale Hurston titled Magnolia Flower, Mother Catherine, Now You Cookin’ with Gas, The Bone of Contention, High John de Conquer, and The Conscience of the Court.

Hurston was a writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and 1930s. In each print, Saar visually represents the characters and key themes of the texts, including racial stereotypes, good versus evil, and personal relationships