Breach

© Alison Saar. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton,…

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Artist/Maker Alison Saar (American, born 1956)

Publisher Tandem Press, Madison, WI

Printer Tandem Press, Madison, WI

Date2017

MediumWoodcut on vintage linen seed sacks

DimensionsOverall: 44 1/4 × 19 1/4 in. (112.4 × 48.9 cm) Frame: 51 3/8 × 26 7/8 × 2 in. (130.5 × 68.3 × 5.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund

Object number2017.16.1

Not on view

Description"During a 2013 residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Saar was dismayed to see how little had been done to rebuilt African American communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina eight years earlier. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she began researching the histories of American floods and the effect on African Americans. The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, described as one of the worst natural river disasters in U.S. history, piqued her interest. Heavy rains resulted in the river breaching levees, creating a historic catastrophe that had a profound impact on the life of African Americans living in the Mississippi Delta. The flood exposed the conditions of poor African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers and their relationship with cotton plantation owners. The flood also resulted in social, cultural, federal policy, and political changes." (SOURCE: Lafayette Art Galleries, Alison Saar: Breach, fall 2016) "Breach represents the women during the flood who had to single handedly evacuate their family and belongings. Though stripped bare, the female figure stands tall as she balances an impossible burden on her head. The title Breach references not only of the river breaching the levees, but it also pointedly comments on the breaches of humanity and morality in the mistreatment of African Americans during this epic disaster." (SOURCE: Tandem Press prospectus, fall 2017)

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