Rise
Artist
Alison Saar
(American, born 1956)
Date2020
Medium2-color linoleum on letterpress
DimensionsSheet: 11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
Image: 9 1/4 x 7 in. (23.5 x 17.8 cm)
Credit LineAnonymous Gift
CultureAmerican
Object numberPC2020.12
ClassificationsPrint Collection
DescriptionBust-length portrait of young, haloed woman wearing a tank top raising her fist in a gesture of solidarity. Interpretations For decades Alison Saar’s work has engaged issues of slavery, racism, and Black identity. Printmaking has been a vital outlet for exploring these themes; Saar often works in woodcut or linocut, “carving” prints that she calls “studies of sculptures.” Rise, however, is an independent work produced in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd and in honor of the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests. Saar donated the proceeds from the sale of each print to three LA-based community organizations. In a New York Times interview (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/arts/design/alison-saar-los-angeles.html), Saar said of Rise: I looked at a lot of images of women from the Black Panther movement with their Afros and fists raised and then contemporized the hairstyle to say we’re still fighting the same battle. I didn’t want it to be one woman. I love Angela Davis, but there are a lot of other women that don’t get recognized, and I’m paying tribute to them all. Some people see the Black Panthers as militant and frightening. To me, the women were very much involved in education, free food, taking care of the elderly, these incredible community practices that are always being erased by the image of the guy holding the rifles.
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