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Alison Saar
1956–

Introduction

Alison Saar (born February 5, 1956) is a Los Angeles, California based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality. Saar is well known for "transforming found objects to reflect themes of cultural and social identity, history, and religion." Saar credits her parents for her exposure to these metaphysical and spiritual practices. Her mother, Betye Saar (née Brown), is a collagist and assemblage artist and her father, Richard Saar, is a painter and art conservator. Saar followed in her parents footsteps along with her sisters, Lesley Saar, who is also an artist, despite wanting to get out of her parents shadow. She finds more gratification in making art than writing about it, as she found out after finishing a dual major in fine arts and art history.

Throughout her years as a practicing artist Saar has received achievement awards from institutions including the New York City Art Commission as well as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Wikidata identifier

Q4727179

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed April 26, 2024.

Introduction

The daughter of the African-American artist Betye Saar, Allison was trained at Scripps College and the Otis Art Institute.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, installation artist, painter, photographer, sculptor

ULAN identifier

500122244

Names

Alison Saar, Allison Saar

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 26, 2024.