“Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight” Debuts at The Huntington on Nov. 11

SAN MARINO, Calif.—Renowned American artist Betye Saar’s large-scale work Drifting Toward Twilight—commissioned by The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens—will go on view Nov. 11, 2023, in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. The site-specific installation features a 17-foot-long vintage wooden canoe and found objects, including birdcages, antlers, and natural materials harvested by Saar from The Huntington’s 207-acre grounds. The work will be the centerpiece of an immersive exhibition, “Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight,” co-curated by Yinshi Lerman-Tan, The Huntington’s Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art, and Sóla Saar Agustsson, Saar’s granddaughter and the Huntington Art Museum’s special programs and digitization assistant. The exhibition will remain on view for two years, and the work will become a permanent part of The Huntington’s American art collection.

“We are incredibly excited to present ‘Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight,’ as we continue to expand the stories we tell in our galleries,” said Christina Nielsen, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum. “This installation will be deeply significant to our community because of Betye’s iconic status in Black feminist and American art and also because it represents something of a homecoming for her.” Saar grew up in Pasadena, which is adjacent to The Huntington’s city of San Marino. She attended Pasadena City College, was inspired by exhibitions at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum), and produced film and design work in the area during her early career.

The commission is indeed personal for Saar, who has fond memories of visiting The Huntington as a child and of the trees and landscape in her north Pasadena neighborhood. “When I was a child in the 1930s, I would come to The Huntington with my mother and aunt, who were avid gardeners. As I became an artist, I realized the importance, and the influence, of nature in my work—whether it’s the moon and the stars, branches and rocks, or bones and shells,” Saar said. “It is my desire that Drifting Toward Twilight brings the outside in, blending the gardens with the gallery and creating an immersive, contemplative experience for the viewer.”

Drifting Toward Twilight also showcases Saar’s major status as a pioneer of assemblage art and as part of the foundational generation of Black artists in Los Angeles. “Saar’s importance to the history of American art cannot be overstated,” Lerman-Tan said. “Heavily impacted by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Watts Rebellion, she emerged as a major artistic voice during the Civil Rights and feminist movements, making works that confronted the legacies of racism and enslavement. Siting this commission at The Huntington connects Saar’s career as an icon of American art to the formative experiences and artistic circles she had in Pasadena.”