Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Return of Julian the Apostate to Rome (from the series A Secretary to the Spirits [for Ishmael Reed])

Betye Saar

The Return of Julian the Apostate to Rome (from the series A Secretary to the Spirits [for Ishmael Reed])

1975-1978
15 x 10 inches (38.1 x 25.4 cm)
Collage of cut and torn printed papers and fabric, with porous point pen, watercolor, and acrylic matte medium on laminated paperboard
2017.306:3

Gift of the Modern and Contemporary Collectors Committee, 2017.

Notes
This collage is part of a group that was commissioned in 1975 by author and activist Ishmael Reed to illustrate his book of poems, A Secretary to the Spirits (NOK Publishers, 1978). Saar's layered approach echoes Reed's poetry, which combines references to the ancient and the contemporary, the spiritual and the mundane. The collages incorporate a range of images: Uncle Ben represents the commoditization and mainstreaming of derogatory representations of African-Americans; colorful fabrics reflect Saar's lifelong habit of saving fabric scraps (her mother was a seamstress); and rubber stamps and collages of stars, moons, and palmistry charts point to her interest in mysticism.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings