Black Radical Woman

      The art project by Betye Saar called The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is a cocktail bottle with pieces of the Black Power Movement. It shows political violence and middle-class American culture, the project use these to talk about the stereotypes of black women and show the revolutions goal of Black Liberation. On the bottle there is a handmade label with a “mammy” figure on the front and a Black Power fist on the back, the ubiquitous California wine jug turned Molotov cocktail wryly comments on the potential and promise of armed resistance to oppression.  

        The artist Betye Saar a native Californian who in the late 1960's started collect "black collectibles" everyday objects that featured racist caricatures of African Americans and they were found in homes all over the place. After the death of MLK Jr all the stuff she collected she recycled it into her art, in 1972 she created her own series of assemblages The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. She returned to this of resisting racism and servitude in series like Workers and Warriors and In Service. Saar gives her concerns on political, gender, religious, racial through her art.  In the video we watched in class the person talking mentioned how history repeat itself, back then there were these type of problems and now they are being brought up again and being addressed by the ones that are being oppressed again. Saar work is on display in many galleries, so her messages that she gives through her art is being spread throughout.  

Betye Saar 

Betye Saar Brooklyn Museum