As the daughter of prominent artist Betye Saar, Alison Saar was encouraged to pursue art as an avenue for critically examining themes of religion and feminism. In Alison Saar’s lithograph Black Snake Blues an African American woman lies down next to a snake. A specific reference to Biblical symbolism, the snake in this image represents evil. The woman in the print then could be seen as Eve, in that she encounters a “sinful snake” and gives in to temptations. While the figure depicted reclaims her sexual desire, there is an apparent tension between her complicity and the repercussions of her actions. Reflecting Jeff Martin’s song Black Snake Blues, Saar alludes to the shame and religious consequences the woman would have faced as a result of submitting to sexual desires. The holding of her breast reflects her longing for such relations, and her vacant eyes show her submitting to her temptations. According to art historian Jessica Dallow, Saar is carving a path for “issues of female desire, infidelity, and transgression.”

In her subject and style, Saar’s print echoes the work of prominent French artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin’s work frequently takes religious references, bright colors, and nude women as its subjects. These elements are all relevant to understanding Saar’s Black Snake Blues. Saar incorporates such aspects in order to reclaim African American women’s bodies and shed light on topics of women’s passion and desire not previously included in feminist Africa American art.

– Kaylyn Sawyer, excerpt from Identities: African American Art from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection

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TONIGHT at LACMA, March 10, 2015 / 7pm: Alison Saar, with fellow artists Stas Orlovski and Jonas Wood, are included in a panel discussion about the relevance of printmaking to their work. More info here: http://www.lacma.org/event/la-print

IMAGE: Alison Saar, Black Snake Blues, 1994, offset lithograph, 21 ¾ x 29 ¾ in. (55.2 x 75.6 cm), Edition of 20