MOMA TO HOST PROGRAM WITH ARTISTS BETYE SAAR AND ALISON SAAR

Betye Saar and Alison Saar: A Dialogue
Monday, November 1, 8:00 p.m. in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Assemblage artist Betye Saar and her daughter, sculptor Alison Saar, present a slide-illustrated dialogue on personal insights and shared inspirations in their work on November 1, 1999, at 8:00 p.m. in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 at The Museum of Modern Art. They will be introduced by Robert Storr, Senior Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture. This program is sponsored by The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art.

Betye Saar’s (b. 1926) work focuses on issues of race and gender. Her best known body of work, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972), transforms the negative “mammy” stereotype of Aunt Jemima into the positive symbol of an empowered woman. In 1998, Ms. Saar again focused on Aunt Jemima with the series Workers and Warriors: The Return of Aunt Jemima, using the black stereotype to confront what she sees as persistent racism in American life and art.

Alison Saar’s (b. 1956) sculpted wood and found-object figures evoke the African diaspora, drawing from African and Haitian folklore, contemporary African-American culture, Catholicism, Santeria, vodun, and classical mythology.

Founded in 1993 by Akosua Barthwell Evans, The Friends of Education is a fifty member, Museum-affiliated group whose mission is to encourage greater appreciation of African American artists and to encourage the participation and membership of African Americans in the Museum.

In 1995, the Friends established the Friends of Education Fund to raise money annually to finance the Museum’s acquisition of art created by African Americans and programs to attract African-American audiences.

Over the years, the Friends have helped the Museum develop effective outreach programs for exhibitions and have sponsored public lectures and panel discussions at MoMA, featuring artists such as Roy DeCarava, Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Mel Edwards, Elizabeth Catlett, Carrie Mae Weems, Martin Puryear, Howardena Pindell, William T. Williams, and Maren Hassinger. Most recently, the Friends sponsored Situation Critical? African-American Writers on African-Americans Artists, a panel discussion held in March 1999. One of the most successful events sponsored by The Friends of Education at the Museum was Jazz Interlude: An Evening with Wynton Marsalis, held in April of 1998. The event raised more than $365,000, the largest sum ever raised by a musical performance benefit at the Museum.

Tickets for the event are $10 general admission. Museum members $8; students and seniors $7. Tickets are available at the Museum’s Lobby Information Desk.