Betye Saar, pioneering figure of Black arts movement, dies at 99

Betye Saar, a pioneering figure of the Black arts movement, died Sunday at her Los Angeles home at age ninety-nine, The Guardian reports. Saar was renowned for assemblage, an art form built from everyday objects, and became best known for reclaiming Jim Crow-era memorabilia — dolls, washboards — and transforming them into images of Black liberation. Her work also spanned printmaking and film, exploring themes of family and spirituality across a career that helped define a movement.

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