Mirror Mirror: The Prints of Alison Saar
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina Greensboro
February 16 – April 30, 2021
Please Note: For Spring 2021, the Museum is open to the UMass Community only. The public is invited to view the full exhibition here and to join our virtual events.
About the Exhibition
Alison Saar is known not only for her powerful sculptures; she is also a master of the art of printmaking. In both mediums she employs a personal vocabulary informed by history, race, and mythology. Saar is especially drawn to the Kouros, an ancient Greek sculptural form of a man in the diametric pose of stillness and movement. Saar’s works narrate stories of the African American experience, moving effortlessly from the personal to the political. Often, she charts the tragic history of slavery in America, but her figures symbolize defiance and strength. Other recurring images are informed by jazz, romance, and desire. Through decades of work, Alison Saar has used the power of art to tell stories — especially ones that matter.
This exhibition reflects the vast body of prints the artist has created over the past 35 years. It also includes a selection of her sculptures of powerful figures carved from wood or cast in bronze, that are built from found objects — material artifacts that enrich the work with narratives of their own. Saar undertakes printmaking with the same tangible approach to unconventional materials and methods. Cast-off objects such as old chair backs and ceiling tin become the foundations for etching or lithography plates. Carved wooden panels used for wood block prints echo similar techniques established in her hewn wooden forms. In addition to printing on paper, Saar also employs a variety of re-purposed fabrics such as vintage handkerchiefs, old shop rags, and antique sugar sacks, that are layered, cut, sewn, and collaged — empowering the content of the image while resisting the flat repetitive nature of the medium.
Partners
Support for the exhibition’s education program has been made possible by a grant from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation.
We thank the UMassFive College Federal Credit Union for their support of our 2021 exhibition program.
We appreciate the generous support of New England Public Media.
