This exhibition features the works of artists Betye Saar and Mildred Howard. Both artists use found objects and mixed media to address themes of oppression, racism, and the exploitation African Americans have faced for centuries. Their works bring attention to flawed historical perceptions and the inability to view African American culture as better than its past due to continued modern oppression. The exhibition highlights Saar and Howard's voices in confronting cultural stereotypes and battling myths through pieces that reference slavery, violence, and the civil rights movement.

1. Is This Our
History?
An exhibition featuring
Betye Saar and Mildred Howard
curated by:
Caitlin Barnebee
University of Central Florida
ARH 3631-15

2. Curatorial Statement
“African American artists are energetic participants in a cultural revolution.”
- Mary Jane Hewitt
To strengthen their role in society, artists like Betye Saar and Mildred Howard, have become
dominating voices regarding the oppression and racism their culture has faced for centuries. Using
their heritage as an element in their art, both artists have touched on slavery, violence, racism, war
and the exploitation of African Americans throughout the 20th century. It is within these elements
that their voice resonates with clarity and is able to speak beyond the color of their skin to the
problems facing African Americans today. Their common goal is to point out how the perception of
history is flawed, and in order to move forward in history, we must not try to forget the foundations
in which the African American culture has been built. However, we must accept the past, as it is, to be
able to move beyond it without it hurting our future.
This exhibition showcases Saar and Howard’s ability to bring their voices to the forefront of the
African American culture struggle. It convey’s the inability to view themselves, as a whole culture, as
better than their past due to the continued oppression they face in the 21st century, from society and
amongst themselves, despite all the aggressions they have surmounted.

3. Betye Saar
b. 1926
b. 1926
Curiosity
about the unknown
has no boundaries.
Symbols, images, places and cultures merge.
time slips away.
The stars, the cards, the mystic vigil
may hold the answers.
By shifting the point of view
an inner spirit is released.
Free to create.
- Betye Saar, 1998
About The Artist:
Betye Saar was born in Los Angeles, California, but, at the age of five, moved with her mother and
family into her Great-Aunt’s home in Pasadena. She attended Pasadena City College and finished her
degree in Design in 1949 at the University of California. After graduating, Saar worked in Social Work
while also attending state fairs and community art competitions. In 1952, Saar met and married her
husband, Richard, and had two children, Lezley in 1953 and Allison in 1958. In 1962, Betye completed
Graduate Studies work at California State university; Long Beach, University of Southern California and
California State University; Northridge.
Saar was heavily influenced by a 1967 Exhibition featuring Joseph Cornell and began working in
Assemblage. She began creating work typically consisting of found objects arranged within boxes or
windows, with items drawing on various cultures reflecting Saar's own mixed ancestry: African-
American, Irish and Native American. After participating in the civil rights and black arts movements of
the 1970s, Saar’s art began to challenge stereotypes and battle cultural myths.

4. Betye Saar
American, b. 1926 -
The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972
Mixed Media Assemblage
Mixed Media Assemblage
Mixed Media Assemblage
Mixed Media Assemblage
Mixed Media Assemblage
As one of her most well-known pieces,
Saar addresses the image of the Mammy
and the propagandistic use of black
history to sell pancake batter and
syrup. Standing on a field of cotton
while gripping a broom in one hand, a
shotgun in the other in front of a black
hand clutched into a fist, Saar
expresses her view on the identity of
African American women. A
stereotyped image that must be taken
back from the societal oppressions of
the prior decades leading up to the
civil rights movement.

5. white, with a seemingly scientific sketching of the head in light browns. As America witnessed the
rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Saar’s assemblage and collage constructions merged
personal and family history with broader themes of cultural and political segregation. This work
alludes to the outdated pseudoscience of phrenology, which raised questions about an individual
based on the measurements of the head. Saar separates the science (left) from the stereotype
(right) as two entities part of a whole.
The head on the Right, decorated like a kitchen maid’s head wrap including the use of a tin-can lid,
and decorated in bright yellow, gives the illusion of the “exotic”, whereas the head on the left is
white, with a seemingly scientific sketching of the head in light browns. As America witnessed the
rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Saar’s assemblage and collage constructions merged
personal and family history with broader themes of cultural and political segregation. This work
alludes to the outdated pseudoscience of phrenology, which raised questions about an individual
based on the measurements of the head. Saar separates the science (left) from the stereotype
(right) as two entities part of a whole.
The head on the Right, decorated like a kitchen maid’s head wrap including the use of a tin-can lid,
and decorated in bright yellow, gives the illusion of the “exotic”, whereas the head on the left is
white, with a seemingly scientific sketching of the head in light browns. As America witnessed the
rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Saar’s assemblage and collage constructions merged
personal and family history with broader themes of cultural and political segregation. This work
alludes to the outdated pseudoscience of phrenology, which raised questions about an individual
based on the measurements of the head. Saar separates the science (left) from the stereotype
(right) as two entities part of a whole.
The head on the Right, decorated like a kitchen maid’s head wrap including the use of a tin-can lid,
and decorated in bright yellow, gives the illusion of the “exotic”, whereas the head on the left is
white, with a seemingly scientific sketching of the head in light browns. As America witnessed the
rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Saar’s assemblage and collage constructions merged
personal and family history with broader themes of cultural and political segregation. This work
alludes to the outdated pseudoscience of phrenology, which raised questions about an individual
based on the measurements of the head. Saar separates the science (left) from the stereotype
(right) as two entities part of a whole.

6. Betye Saar
American, b.1926 -
Equality, 1972
Mixed Media and Wood
Mixed Media and Wood
Mixed Media and Wood
Mixed Media and Wood
Mixed Media and Wood
In another commentary about African-
American women and the Mammy
figure, Saar has pinned nearly illegible
grocery lists on a serving platter and
spread the word “Equality” across all
three lists. The ignorance in the
phrasing “We wants today? We Needs
Today? Oh! i needs” at the top of the
lists is a poke of mockery at the lack of
education of African Americans and yet
their ability to be capable enough to
care for whole families and cook large
meals as evidence of their intelligence
and the importance of equality for both
men and women.

7. Betye Saar
American, b.1926 -
The Destiny of Longitude & Latitude, 2010
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Throughout her career, Saar has been collecting
ordinary household items, including various
types of cages, from flea markets, yard sales
and antique shops. these cages became the
basis for a “Cage” series in which Saar uses
them to represent physical and metaphorical
incarceration, as well as resilience and survival.
Bringing attention to the death of slaves on long
oversea voyages, Saar encapsulates the
unknown and already silent voices of her
ancestors.

8. Betye Saar
American, b.1926 -
The Weight of Color, 2008
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Mixed media Assemblage
Another piece in her “Cage” Series, Saar’s crow
is nearly bursting out of the gilded cage in which
he is jailed. Shackled and weighed, with an
antique mammy on top as a subtle reminder,
Saar reminds the African American of the 21st
century about their roots. Her voice about the
illusion of acceptance regarding the color of a
person’s skin is blatant and without censor.

9. Mildred Howard
b.1945
b.1945
About the Artist:
Born in San Francisco, but raised in Berkley, California, Mildred
Howard’s parents were politically active in their community regarding
social issues, and encouraged their daughter to do the same. At a
young age, Howard participated in youth protests about segregation
in the Berkeley school system. She graduated fromShe received an
Associate of Arts Degree and Certificate in Fashion Arts from the
College of Alameda in 1977 and an MFA in 1985 from the Fiber-
works Center from the Textile Arts at John F. Kennedy University.
Highly praised around San Francisco, Howard has been critically
acclaimed and exhibited through the United States and across
Europe.
One could go about their day, doing things
as they normally would, one step after
another, but sometimes something happens
that forces you to look at things differently.
What would happen if you didn't do that?
You're forced to look at things differently,
and everything is turned upside down. That
happens in life.
-Mildred Howard, 2012

10. Mildred Howard
American, b. 1945 -
U.S. Savings Bonds & Westside Court 3, n.d.
Mixed Media Collage
Mixed Media Collage
Mixed Media Collage
Mixed Media Collage
Mixed Media Collage
Using old Bond records, family portraits and war
Savings Bonds, Howard created a collage about
the history of a simple African-American family.
The Contributions of African Americans to the
many wars throughout history without
recognition are unmeasured and will never be
appreciated. “I am a percenter” is stamped at
the bottom and barely noticeable, but reminds
the audience of the percenters during wartimes
as true patriots. Howard brings attention to the
liberty and property rights of every person
without regard to race or creed.

11. Mildred Howard
American, b. 1945 -
In the Line of Fire, 1999
Installation
Installation
Installation
Installation
Installation
This installation illustrates the face of a young
African American WWII G.I. on more than a
dozen stands of military dressed soldiers.
Howard uses the image to, again, recall the
contributions made by African Americans who
went on to fight for American freedoms that they
would never have themselves.

12. Mildred Howard
American, b. 1945 -
Kiss the Cake, 2007
Bronze, wood, Plaster, Paint
Bronze, wood, Plaster, Paint
Bronze, wood, Plaster, Paint
Bronze, wood, Plaster, Paint
Bronze, wood, Plaster, Paint
is the materialization of its title, a baker’s
phrase imagined as sculpture. Two baker’s
gloves hold a rolling pin as if rolling out
dough for a pie, but have a glossy pair of red
lips flattened upon them. the lips are painted
resin cast from the artist’s mouth, along with
a cleft of brown skin between her upper lip
and nose. This may be Howard’s most
surreal image but brings to mind the
housemaid, or Mammy, role most African
American women upheld and responsible for
cooking, cleaning and caring for their
charges children; Aunt Jemima?

13. Volume I & II: The History of the United States
with a Few Missing Parts, 2007
modified books with folding cases
This piece, two books gouged with holes clear
through the spine, are exhibited as the
incomplete volumes of the United States;
Forgetting parts of history that are
embarrassing, painful, shameful or too
insignificant to print, Howard gives a voice to
those events that make up the history of African
Americans. Howard also references the gun
culture stereotype of African American
communities and the damage that they inflict
upon themselves, as well as others during the
21st century.

14. vintage silver objects and shell knives, adhesive
This installation of objects is a ceiling-high outline of a small house whose steel lines are gilded with
butter knives placed end-to-end, and whose floor is filled with polished and tarnished silver
tableware. At the same time, a host of platters, goblets, and serving trays stream out one end of the
house along the wooden gallery floor toward a wall punctured with dozens of cutting knives, As if
Howard is making a nod to the gilded cages of houses. This rapid transition from domestic
containment to the projection of rage references the safe houses that were integral parts of the
Underground Railroad and the domestic violence riddling African American cultures of the 21st
century.
This installation of objects is a ceiling-high outline of a small house whose steel lines are gilded with
butter knives placed end-to-end, and whose floor is filled with polished and tarnished silver
tableware. At the same time, a host of platters, goblets, and serving trays stream out one end of the
house along the wooden gallery floor toward a wall punctured with dozens of cutting knives, As if
Howard is making a nod to the gilded cages of houses. This rapid transition from domestic
containment to the projection of rage references the safe houses that were integral parts of the
Underground Railroad and the domestic violence riddling African American cultures of the 21st
century.
This installation of objects is a ceiling-high outline of a small house whose steel lines are gilded with
butter knives placed end-to-end, and whose floor is filled with polished and tarnished silver
tableware. At the same time, a host of platters, goblets, and serving trays stream out one end of the
house along the wooden gallery floor toward a wall punctured with dozens of cutting knives, As if
Howard is making a nod to the gilded cages of houses. This rapid transition from domestic
containment to the projection of rage references the safe houses that were integral parts of the
Underground Railroad and the domestic violence riddling African American cultures of the 21st
century.
This installation of objects is a ceiling-high outline of a small house whose steel lines are gilded with
butter knives placed end-to-end, and whose floor is filled with polished and tarnished silver
tableware. At the same time, a host of platters, goblets, and serving trays stream out one end of the
house along the wooden gallery floor toward a wall punctured with dozens of cutting knives, As if
Howard is making a nod to the gilded cages of houses. This rapid transition from domestic

15. End

16. References for Betye Saar
wikipedia.org/wiki/Betye_Saar
betyesaar.net
blogs.artinfo.com
blogs.getty.edu
www.sharonarts.org
References for Mildred Howard
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_howard
artiousblog.wordpress.com
conversations.org
richmondartcenter.org
gallerypauleanglim.com
squarecylinder.com