The artist, who died just short of her 100th birthday, subverted racist tropes by turning mammy dolls into warriors and presenting the breadth of the Black experience.
In 1972, the Rainbow Sign, a Black cultural center in Berkeley, Calif., put on a group show that featured a small work by Betye Saar, an artist from Los Angeles. Though not even a foot tall, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” (1972), her box assemblage ... [1568 chars]