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Artist/Maker
Alison Saar
(American, born 1956)
Printer
Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Date2021
MediumScreen print, acrylic spray paint, and gloss varnish on aluminum tin
DimensionsOverall: 18 1/2 in. × 18 1/2 in. × 2 in. (47 × 47 × 5.1 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, The Wynant J. Williams '35 Art Collection Fund
Object number2022.10
On view
DescriptionAlison Saar’s Congolene Resistance is meant to resemble the top of a tub of Congolene, a hair relaxer popular with Black men between the 1920s and the 1960s. However, the figure in Saar’s image proudly boasts “stubborn and kinky” natural hair while biting down on a hot comb. In mimicking a product that was used to tame natural hair, Saar instead creates a badgelike symbol of defiance. For Saar, the daughter of acclaimed assemblage artist Betye Saar and art conservator Richard Saar, natural hair is a crucial element of her identity as a biracial woman. Several of her works consequently depict natural hair as a response to racism and sexism.
Collections
Additional Details
Provenance
2022: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Tandem Press, Madison, WI.
Signature
Signed by the artist on bottom outside edge of the aluminum tin.
Thomas Nast
Date: published October 3, 1868
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.103
Unknown artist
Date: date unknown
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: INV.542
Thomas Nast
Date: published October 17, 1874
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.255
Unknown artist
Date: c. 332-250 BCE
Medium: Terracotta with remnants of pigment
Object number: 1943.20
Thomas Nast
Date: published December 16, 1876
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.354
Jamea Richmond-Edwards
Date: 2018
Medium: Pigment print with silkscreen diamond dust and gold foil
Object number: 2020.1
Unknown artist
Date: c. 1870-75
Medium: Leather with dentalium shells and trade beads
Object number: 1984.456