The exhibition at the ICA Miami will present the entire suite of Saar’s room-sized installations for the first time since she began making them more than thirty years ago. Betye Saar is curated by Stephanie Seidel who is working closely with the artist to reconstitute fifteen interrelated, individual rooms created between 1980 and 1998, that reflect the artist’s interest in spirituality, ritual, and race. The exhibition will not only reconstruct Saar’s important installations, but will also serve as the occasion for them to be properly documented for the first time. The exhibition catalogue will feature photographs of every installation accompanied by exhaustive inventories detailing the components of each one. Because Saar recycles objects in her work, borrowing from one installation to make another, the inventories will be crucial for future scholarship and exhibition.
Betye Saar
Installation view: Betye Saar, "Oasis," 1984, at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.
Installation view: Betye Saar, "Resurrection," 1988, at Cal State Fullerton, California. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California.
1964
Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deems too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.