Alison Saar: STILL

              6 7
Informed by artistic traditions from the Americas to Africa and beyond, and by her mixed
racial upbringing, Alison Saar fuses her paradoxical responses to the black-and-white
delineations of political and social forces into a powerful, visual, and kinesthetic tension.
She uses the history and associations of her materials, everyday experience, African art and
ritual, Greek mythology, and the stark sculptural tradition of German Expressionism
to infuse her work with a primal intensity that challenges cultural and historic references
and stereotypes.
The metaphorical armature supporting, entwining, embracing this selection of new
sculpture is the myriad of meanings for the word “still.” Saar teases out the complexities
of this little noun/verb in bold and subtle ways. Four stylized glass “stills” express the
personal and political challenges of being an artist, woman, and mother in the twenty-first
century. These interactive idiosyncratic stills attempt to distill the vile essence of bigotry
and transform it into consciousness. Only through awareness and informed mindfulness can
negative representations be dispelled and converted into positive reflections.
In contrast to the rustic, mechanical, fragmented feel of the stills, are Saar’s figures. These
various hybrid creatures stem from trees or boast antlers. They stand at the threshold,
caught or balancing between free will and innate evolution. They are mythical portends of
inevitable change—shedding fertility to reveal the next saga. For example, Rouse (2012)
depicts a strong, dark, compact woman with a semi-transparent embryonic shell of a female
figure nestled and bound inside her large antlers. Saar’s inspiration for this work was
watching her daughter grow from a teenager to an adult. It also mirrors her desire to remake
herself, to emerge from one state of creative pursuit and production to another.
Saar, an alumna from Otis’ Graduate Fine Arts program in 1981, is a mature and significant
sculptor who has achieved broad recognition for her studio and public art throughout
the country. Her work is held in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art,
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Metropolitan Museum of Art; and she has
major public art works in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. She has received numerous
prestigious awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman, and the
National Endowment for the Arts.
The Ben Maltz Gallery is dedicated to providing a space, and an encouraging atmosphere,
for artists to experiment with materials and ideas outside their usual practice. It has
been a pleasure and an honor to work with Alison Saar over the last two years and watch
her struggle and thrive to bring this challenging body of work into being. As with every
exhibition of this caliber there are dozens of people working behind the scenes who make it
all possible and we have acknowledged their efforts separately in this publication.
INTRODUCTION By Meg Linton
Alison SAAR: STIL
Rouse, 2012
Wood, bronze, paper and
antler sheds
90 x 76 x 73 inches