Black Girl’s Window by Betye Saar

Black Girl’s Window
1969
Identity Politics
Mixed media assemblage (Wooden window frame with paint, cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers, daguerreotype, lenticular print, and plastic figurine)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

“Black Girl’s Window” is composed of a repurposed, weathered wooden window frame. Saar painted a silhouette black girl with her hands and face against the window looking out. Her eyes are two lens-like shapes cut from material that creates the illusion of blinking as the viewer changes position. This piece marked Saar’s shift in artistic focus from printmaking to collage and assemblage. It is also a response to David Hammons “Black Boy’s Window” (1968)

Betye Saar
Feminist Art, Identity Art and Identity Politics, Assemblage, Collage
Born: 30 July 1926, California, USA
Nationality: African-American

Saar is an artist best known for her work in the medium of assemblage. She is also a visual storyteller and printmaker. In the 1970s Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement which engaged with myths and stereotypes about race and gender. Her work is highly political and challenges the negative ideas about African Americans