Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Activity: Pieces of You
Make your own work of art from The Betye Saar Art Box inspired by Betye Saar’s work, Fragments. Disponible en español.
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
About This Artwork
Betye Saar is very interested in cosmology, or the study of the universe. The sun depicted in the upper right-hand corner of Fragments is an image that appears frequently in her work and speaks to her interest in this subject. Her personal history is another recurring theme in her work. The torn photographs here are believed to be of members of Betye Saar’s family. Saar incorporated a lot of American history into her work, including aspects of the Black American experience like the civil rights movement and the Great Migration. The fact that the photographs are in pieces is a reminder of how many Black families have been separated in America due to racism and oppression.
Click on the expand icon below to enlarge the image of Fragments.
Betye Saar, Fragments, 1976, color lithograph from an aluminum plate. UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. Gift of Linda Levi and Barbara Leif. © 1976 Betye Saar
What Do You See?
Which objects can you identify?
What do you think those objects tell us about this part of the artist’s identity?
