“I’m the kind of person who recycles materials,” says the assemblage artist Betye Saar, “but I also recycle emotions and feelings.” Saar’s work—found objects arranged in frames, boxes, and tableaux—can seem as homespun as a folktale, but the tale she tells is shadowed by racial and sexual oppression. How did Saar’s emotions become creations? “Call and Response” moves from the artist’s preliminary sketches to their materialization as art. —E.C.

Similar events around the world: Betye Saar: The Legends of Black Girl’s Window, Museum of Modern Art, New York (through January 4, 2020).

Betye Saar: Call and Response was featured in the September 21, 2019 issue of Air Mail. Read on