Lezley Saar

Lezley Saar

BornNationalityBased In
1953AmericanLos Angeles
Biography

Lezley Saar moves between painting, drawing, photography, fabric banners, collages, and installations in her practice. All of these components operate within the distinct vein of Magical Realism that Saar has developed within her oeuvre since the late 1980s. Blending realist imagery with motifs of the supernatural or fragments of folklore, Saar’s pieces evocatively meditate on the intersections of race, gender, ancestry, sexuality and spirituality. The women in her paintings could have been plucked from the pages of Toni Morrison’s novels, or the Afro-Surrealist poetry of Suzanne Césaire. Appearing as omniscient ghosts or spirits, each figure is laced with ancestral weight. Bones, butterflies, snakes, or antlers form regal headpieces for these figures while their eyes pierce knowingly at audiences. Simultaneously drawing out dark histories and the resonant beauty of these women, Saar plays with the tropes of American Gothic to depict enrapturing, otherworldly figures who share stories often left untold. ...

Selected Artworks
Therese Raquin, Madwoman in the Attic
Lezley Saar
Therese Raquin, Madwoman in the Attic, 2011
116.8 x 91.4cm
Melancholia Passing into Mania
Lezley Saar
Melancholia Passing into Mania, 2012
91.4 x 67.3cm
The Lunatic, The Chaste and the Unexpressive
Lezley Saar
The Lunatic, The Chaste and the Unexpressive, 2013
50.8 x 40.64cm
The Universe Sent Me
Lezley Saar
The Universe Sent Me, 2014
40.64 x 50.8cm
Zerpenta Dambullah: Born under the shade of a black willow tree in New Orleans in 1826 sat on a rock turning rain into tobacco smoke
Lezley Saar
Zerpenta Dambullah: Born under the shade of a black willow tree in New Orleans in 1826 sat on a rock turning rain into tobacco smoke, 2019
172.8 x 101.6cm
Through the black water the slow diamonds
Lezley Saar
Through the black water the slow diamonds, 2021
73.7 x 48.3cm
They have blossomed from the lands of death, These flowers which a long-wrought dream has poured
Lezley Saar
They have blossomed from the lands of death, These flowers which a long-wrought dream has poured, 2021
78.7 x 40.6cm
Cell Realization
Lezley Saar
Cell Realization, 2014
40.6 x 30.5cm
The Self of Me
Lezley Saar
The Self of Me, 2014
40.6 x 30.5cm
Illumination of a capsized sun
Lezley Saar
Illumination of a capsized sun, 2021
205.7 x 114.3cm
The key that opens wide her gates of horn To emanations of delivered souls
Lezley Saar
The key that opens wide her gates of horn To emanations of delivered souls, 2021
76.2 x 39.4cm
Mariana dos Santos
Lezley Saar
Mariana dos Santos, 2024
66 x 50.8cm
Morena de Bahia
Lezley Saar
Morena de Bahia, 2024
66 x 50.8cm
Gallery Representation
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