Betye Saar's Black Doll Collection Goes to New-York Historical

Betye Saar, the 98-year-old assemblage artist, has promised her collection of over 100 Black dolls to the New-York Historical Society, where an exhibition titled "Betye Saar's Black Dolls" is on view through October 4. The show, co-curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto and Rebecca Klassen, features dolls from Saar's personal collection alongside her paintings, prints, and sculptures. Saar began collecting Black dolls in 1949 after finding an Amosandra doll as a college student, and they have appeared in her work since the 1970s, including in assemblages like "Indigo Mercy" (1975) and the print "Aunt Jemima and Hoo Doo Doll" (1972). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she started painting the dolls in watercolors, a medium she rarely used before. The collection includes 19th-century minstrel, mammy, golliwog, and topsy-turvy dolls, as well as early mass-produced Black dolls. The exhibition opens with "Hoo Doo Woman" (1974), the only doll Saar made herself, inspired by a mid-20th-century Haitian doll. Saar's practice transforms racist imagery into positive, potent symbols, with co-curators noting her view of collecting as a ritual that releases objects into the world. The artist turns 100 in 2026.