
Not All Turtles Sing
Catalogue
- Year
- 1964
- Medium
- Etching
- Dimensions
- plate: 11 7/8 × 14 13/16" (30.1 × 37.7 cm); sheet (irreg.): 13 1/4 × 17 5/16" (33.7 × 44 cm)
- Collection
- Museum of Modern Art
- Artist
- Betye Saar
Artist

Betye Saar is an American artist working primarily in assemblage, collage, and mixed media who emerged in the 1960s to create politically charged works that reclaim and subvert racist imagery and stereotypes. Her practice draws on found objects, photographs, and ephemera to construct layered, often box-like compositions that expose the violence of systemic racism while celebrating African American resilience and spiritual practice. Her work has engaged with the occult, folk traditions, and domestic spaces as sites of resistance and cultural memory. Based in Los Angeles, Saar's practice spans five decades of rigorous formal experimentation alongside uncompromising social critique.
Full artist profile →More
More by Betye Saar
The Invitation
1991 · Photomechanical reproductions pasted on fabric mounted on paper, with fan, tin ex-voto heart, feather, and wood hearts, in hinged wood shadow box
"Keep for Old Memiors"
1976 · Pencil on paper, printed papers, and printed fabric sewn and pasted on fabric with lace, leaves, and feathers, mounted on painted frame with gloves
Aunt Jemima and Hoo Doo Doll
1972 · Marker, pencil, stamped ink, and solvent transfer on torn and painted paper
Eshu (The Trickster)
1971 · Painted leather and fabric
Black Girl's Window
1969 · Wooden window frame with paint, cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers, daguerreotype, lenticular print, and plastic figurine
The Mystic Galaxy
1968 · Etching with embossing
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Betye Saar
- Year
- 1964
- Medium
- Etching
- Dimensions
- plate: 11 7/8 × 14 13/16" (30.1 × 37.7 cm); sheet (irreg.): 13 1/4 × 17 5/16" (33.7 × 44 cm)
- Watts ID
- WW-1964-M121246
Source
- Collection
- Museum of Modern Art
- Source
- moma
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





