“Uneasy Dancer” is the first exhibition of Betye Saar (Los Angeles, 1926) in Italy; curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose at Fondazione Prada, it opens to the public from 15 September 2016 through 8 January 2017 and brings together over 80 works produced between 1966 and 2016.
“Uneasy Dancer” is an expression Betye Saar has used to define both herself and her work; several key elements lie at the centre of her artistic practice: an interest in the metaphysical, the representation of feminine memory and African-American identity. As she said about her work, “It was really about evolution rather than revolution, about evolving the consciousness in another way and seeing black people as human beings instead of the caricatures or the derogatory images.” And it is through her confident usage of found objects, personal memorabilia and derogatory images that evoke denied or distorted narratives, that Saar developed a powerful social critique that challenges racial and sexist stereotypes deeply rooted in American culture.
“Saar’s works blur boundaries between art and life, between physical and metaphysical. Spirituality in her work… is to be found in the artistic exercise of transforming common material in a sort of evocative new imagery, involving the viewer in reminiscent fabulations of the real.” (Elvira Dyangani Ose).
Betye Saar exhibition
at Fondazione Prada
