Listen to artist Alison Saar talk about the work of her mother artist Betye Saar.
Betye Saar (b. 1926)
House of Tarot, 1966
Etching with relief printing and relief-printed and embossed found objects, planned edition of 30, 8 known variants.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
© Betye Saar, Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California
Betye Saar (b. 1926)
A Secretary to the Spirits from A Secretary to the Spirits [for Ishmael Reed] series, 1975-78
Mixed-media collage
15 x 10 inches (38.1 x 25.4 cm) each
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2017.306:1
© Betye Saar, Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California
Claire Gilman:
Artist Alison Saar reflects on her mother Betye Saar’s engagement with Tarot and the spiritual world more generally.
Alison Saar:
This is Alison Saar, Betty Saar's daughter. As long as I can remember, we had a deck of tarot in our home. In the 1960s, we moved to Laurel Canyon. Much like Topanga Canyon, it was a scene for artists and musicians, many of whom were drawn to mysticism and the esoteric. Betty became interested in the occult and a variety of spiritual practices, including astrology, palmistry, and the tarot. While I don't recall her using the cards for divination, she was intrigued with the images and the symbolism of the cards, which she soon began to incorporate into her art. Cards from the Tarot de Marseilles deck, the sun, the moon, and the star, as well as death and the fool or the upside down man, began to appear in her prints, collages, and assemblages.
She would also combine aspects of the tarot with astrological and now chemical signs and symbols, sometimes as drawn interpretations, and often collaged found objects such as foil shapes of fish, suns, and lions. Although her practice later focused on issues of race, ancestry, and rituals from the diaspora, her interest in the spiritual world and the occult is still evident in her watercolors and sketches that she creates today as she approaches her centennial birthday.