Betye Saar
On Sunday, May 30th, 9:30am PST (12:30pm EST) Betye Saar will be awarded the twenty-sixth Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig.
The Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst and Museum Ludwig acquired the assemblage The Divine Face from 1971 together with the Museum Ludwig for the museum’s collection as part of the prize awarded to Betye Saar. The work will be presented in the museum’s collection from June 1 – September 12, 2021 along with two etchings recently acquired through the “Perlensucher am Museum Ludwig” initiative as well as a collage and an artist’s book.
The film Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business, which was produced by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for an exhibition there in 2019/2020, will also be shown as part of the presentation.
This recognition of the artist, who was born in Los Angeles in 1926 and is still little known in Germany, is long overdue, the jury consisting of Christophe Cherix, Robert Lehman Foundation chief curator of drawings and prints at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; Yilmaz Dziewior, director of the Museum Ludwig; and the board members of the association decided. For more than sixty years, Betye Saar has created assemblages from a wide variety of found objects, which she combines with drawing, prints, painting, and photography.
Guest juror Christophe Cherix on Betye Saar: “In US art, Betye Saar’s work occupies a key position. Her assemblages from the 1960s and early 1970s combine issues of ethnicity, politics, and supernatural beliefs with her personal history. Saar, who grew up in a racially segregated society, has over the years adhered to her belief that art can overcome our darkest moments and deepest fears. Today, a new generation of artists draws from her awe-inspiring work and makes clear how Saar has changed the course of American art. The 2020 Wolfgang Hahn Prize honors Saar’s extraordinary achievements and influence. At the same time, it recognizes the necessity of reevaluating the historiography of art from recent decades.”
Betye Saar - 2020 Wolfgang Hahn Prize
Virtual Award Ceremonial
Sunday, May 30, 2021, 9:30am (PST), 12:30pm (EST)
To view the May 30th live ceremony, please visit the following link.
Webinar-ID: 919 6392 6402
Publication
Betye Saar: 2020 Wolfgang Hahn Prize, edited by Carla Cugini, Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst.With a foreword by Mayen Beckmann and Yilmaz Dziewior, an interview with Betye Saar, and a laudation by Christophe Cherix, in German and English, published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne. For additional information, please visit the following link.