Browse Items (72 total)

Betye Saar regards the sky as an important aspect of nature and expresses its mystical aspects through a careful manipulation of form. Her fantastical rendition of the sky in LA–Saar’s place of birth–cannot be confined to traditional rectangular and…

From his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an open letter to eight white clergymen who had criticized King’s “unwise and untimely” demonstrations of civil disobedience. Richly illustrated by Ringgold in…

Here, artist Faith Ringgold depicts American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), as part of a larger series in which the artist pays tribute to the lives and impact of prominent African American musicians, writers, and artists of the twentieth…

Saar’s etching makes use of found objects in a relief printing process. Recalling her frequent use of assemblage and interest in Roma mysticism, the work pulls from common objects to conjure an occult atmosphere. The mottled and scratched dark…

Betye Saar states: “The stars, the cards, the mystic vigil may hold the answers. By shifting the point of view an inner spirit is released. Free to create.” Saar places symbols in her mystic sky: the decorative mask represents “hidden identity and…