At 70 years old, Alison Saar is looking forward to expanding the size of her studio so she can take on larger, more ambitious projects. Showing no signs of letting up or slowing down, she continues to explore family, spirituality, and race, mostly through the female form, drawing on a wealth of references and traditions to weave contemporary tales of birth, maturation, decline, and rebirth.
The multidisciplinary artist, whose practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, and mixed-media installations often composed of discarded materials, recently won the prestigious David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History. Established by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in 2005, the award (the first of its kind in the United States) celebrates the original and significant contributions to contemporary art by Black artists and scholars. Being honored by the High is somewhat of a homecoming for Saar; the museum presented “Fertile Ground,” one of her first solo museum exhibitions, in 1993.
Folasade Ologundudu: David C. Driskell (1931–2020) was such an important and prolific figure. An artist and art historian, he laid the foundation for the study of African American art. Considering the legacy that he left behind, how does it feel to be the recipient of a prize bearing his name?
Alison Saar: It’s important on a number of levels. His exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750–1950,” which opened at LACMA in 1976, was eye-opening for me. . .
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