Roberts Projects

Currently on view at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, “Textiles as Monument,” featuring Suchitra Mattai Suchitra Mattai.

What constitutes a monument, and who is memorialized? Three contemporary artists of South Asian descent—Suchitra Mattai, Jagdeep Raina, and Swapnaa Tamhane—transform textiles of their cultural heritage into memorials for those who have been unrecognized in public displays of historical memory. These artworks question why monuments are made and who is given the power to be remembered. The project centers new commissions by the featured artists made in collaboration with, for, and about the communities that have been rendered invisible by the biases of history-making. The creations function as “counter-monuments,” honoring and embodying the presence of those who have not received adequate recognition.

Text and Images Fowler Museum at UCLA. Image: Installation view, “Textiles as Monument,” 2026, Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photo: Elon Schoenholz.

This is the final week to view Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar, an exhibition exploring the central role of costume design in Saar’s early career and throughout her life as a mother and artist. The archivally-driven exhibition features over 200 objects, including costume designs, photographs, drawings, garments, jewelry, artworks and historic materials from the 1950s–1970s.

We invite you to explore Betye’s early career and honor her artistic legacy with us. The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11-6pm.

📷: Installation view; Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar, May 30 – August 22, 2026, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA. Photo: Paul Salveson

Honoring the legendary Betye Saar today on what would have been her 100th revolution around the sun.

Image: Betye Saar, 1971. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles
Betye Saar

Betye Saar | 1926–2026

Roberts Projects is deeply saddened to share that Betye Saar passed away in her sleep in the early morning of Sunday, July 26 in Los Angeles, just four days before her 100th birthday.

A pioneering artist and a leading figure in the assemblage movement, Betye Saar will be remembered for a body of work that powerfully interrogated African American identity, spirituality and the intersections between diverse cultures. Emerging as a vital voice during the Black Arts Movement and second-wave feminism of the late 1960s and 1970s, Saar utilized found objects, family heirlooms and vintage ephemera to explore themes of race, gender and historical memory. Her practice transformed everyday items into groundbreaking artworks and installations, cementing her legacy as one of the most influential artists of our time.

Saar was immensely proud of her family; she is survived by her three daughters, Lezley Saar (Agust Agustsson), Alison Saar (Tom Leeser) and Tracye Saar-Cavanaugh (Francis Cavanaugh) and her grandchildren Kyle Leeser, Maddy Inez, Sola Saar, Gen Saar Agustsson, Spencer Saar Cavanaugh, Megan Cavanaugh and her red footed tortoise Rojo.

Saar’s legacy has been entrusted to the Betye Saar Legacy Group. Established in 2025 by the artist and her studio in collaboration with Roberts Projects, the legacy group is a coalition of leading scholars and esteemed curators from global institutions, each hand-selected by Saar for their expertise in different areas of her multidisciplinary practice.

There are many opportunities to celebrate and engage with Saar’s work during her centennial year: including notable exhibitions such as “Betye Saar’s Black Dolls” at the New York Historical Society, on view through October 4, 2026, “Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight” at the Huntington Library on view through November 30, 2027 and “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,” on view at Roberts Projects Los Angeles through August 22, 2026.

Image: Betye Saar, Los Angeles, 2026. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, Photo: David Sprague.

Join us Saturday, July 25th from 12–2PM to celebrate our latest publication - Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar- A Landmark Volume Revealing Saar’s Little-Known Work in Fashion, Jewelry, and Costume Design

In celebration of the artist’s centennial, Betye Saar and other contributors are anticipated to participate in a special book signing.

With an introduction by Julie Roberts. Preface by Elspeth Carruthers. Text by Neil Lane, Dieter Roelstraete, Alexandria Ryahl, Tracye Saar-Cavanaugh, Mary Skarbek, Zoé Whitley. Interview by CCH Pounder.

Distributed by Artbook | D.A.P. - ARTBOOK | D.A.P
ISBN 9781957920955
Hbk, 9 x 12.5 in. / 180 pgs / 144 color / 56 b&w.

Book Launch & Signing Saturday, July 25 | 12–2PM
Roberts Projects
442 South La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90036

Betye Saar

Images: Betye Saar performs at Inner City Cultural Center’s Talent Nite, Los Angeles, August 1968. Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar catalogue photos. Photo: Paul Salveson. Lezley, Alison and Tracye Saar at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Paramount Ranch, California, May 1968. Betye Saar copper enamel medallion, c. 1951. Photo: Paul Salveson. All courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.

NEW PUBLICATION ~ Join us on Saturday, July 25th from 12-2pm for a book launch & signing at Roberts Projects

Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar
Published by Roberts Projects, Los Angeles

As part of the artist’s centennial celebration, Betye Saar and other contributors are anticipated to take part in a special book signing.

Roberts Projects is delighted to present Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar, a landmark publication organized around Saar’s early work in costume and jewelry design during the 1960s and 1970s, exploring how this formative period profoundly shaped her pioneering work in assemblage and installation. Through original drawings, essays, archival materials and installation images, the book traces Saar’s evolution from designer to artist, revealing the enduring connections between her wearable creations and her broader visual language.

Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar
Introduction by Julie Roberts. Preface by Elspeth Carruthers.
Text by Neil Lane, Dieter Roelstraete, Alexandria Ryahl,
Tracye Saar-Cavanaugh, Mary Skarbek, Zoé Whitley.
Interview by CCH Pounder.

Published by Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California
Distributed by ARTBOOK | D.A.P
ISBN 9781957920955
Hbk, 9 x 12.5 in. / 180 pgs / 144 color / 56 b&w.
Available September 2026

link in bio to pre-order

Betye Saar

Opening Tonight 5–7pm | Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar

Roberts Projects is delighted to present Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar, an exhibition exploring the central role of costume design in Saar’s early career and throughout her life as a mother and artist. The archivally-driven exhibition features over 200 objects, including costume designs, photographs, drawings, garments, jewelry, artworks and historic materials from the 1950s–1970s.

May 30 – August 22, 2026


Photo: Paul Salveson

Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar
May 30 – August 22, 2026
Opening Reception, Friday, May 29, 5–7pm

Roberts Projects is delighted to present Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar, an exhibition exploring the central role of costume design in Saar’s early career and throughout her life as a mother and artist. The archivally-driven exhibition features over 200 objects, including costume designs, photographs, drawings, garments, jewelry, artworks and historic materials from the 1950s–1970s.

Anchored by Saar’s costume designs, Let’s Get It On brings together for the first time a collection of newly-discovered photographs documenting early productions at the Inner City Cultural Center (ICCC)—a multicultural performing arts institution founded in the wake of the 1965 Watts Rebellion—presented alongside the original sketches she created for those very performances.

While working for the theater, Saar also regularly made clothes, jewelry and costumes for her daughters and others, many of them for the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, held at Paramount Ranch in Southern California from 1964–1973.

Images: Betye Saar, Antigone (Red Dress), 1970. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Paul Salveson. Betye Saar, Cocaloony costume design for The Gnadiges Fraulein, 1970. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Paul Salveson. Lee Clark Champion, Ruth Warshawsky and Isabel Sanford in Betye Saar-designed costumes for The Gnadiges Fraulein, Inner City Cultural Center, Los Angeles, January 1970. Courtesy of the artist, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California, and Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Irvin Paik. Leather vest designed by Betye Saar for folk singer-songwriter and civil rights activist Len Chandler, c. 1972. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Paul Salveson. Betye Saar, Mojo necklace, 1974. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Paul Salveson.

Now on view at , “Betye Saar’s Black Dolls” honors the renowned artist’s 100th birthday and celebrates a landmark promised gift to The New York Historical of her collection of more than 100 Black dolls.

began collecting Black dolls during the late 1960s in Los Angeles, a pursuit shaped in part by absence, having grown up in the 1920s and 1930s without owning a Black doll.

Curated in close collaboration with the artist and her studio, Betye Saar’s Black Dolls, a selection of 27 dolls from the promised gift alongside 15 watercolors and examples of her signature assemblages underscore the imaginative possibilities of play, as Saar reanimates historical objects to endow them with agency, personality, and story.

On view through October 4, 2026.

Images: Betye Saar, Hoo Doo Woman, 1974, mixed fabrics, metal jewelry, leather and beads, 14.5 x 10 x 2 in. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer. Betye Saar with Black doll collection, 1976. Photo: Lezley Saar. Betye Saar, Black Floating Doll in Mystic Sky, 2022, watercolor on paper, 24 x 18 in. Photo: Paul Salveson. Unknown artist, Female Doll in Red Dress, ca. 1880-1890, mixed fabrics, 21.25 x 19 x 2.25 in. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer. All images courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California.

It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of James Hayward, an artist whose dedication to his craft spanned over five decades. We were grateful to work with James for over a decade and were even more privileged to call him a dear friend—a man of immense intellect, sharp wit, and profound generosity.

James was a pillar of the Los Angeles art community and a foundational figure in the evolution of California abstraction. Moving beyond the clinical minimalism of his predecessors, he developed a language of “material uncertainties” that prioritized the physical act of marking as a record of time and existence. His work bridged the gap between the historical monochrome and a contemporary, tactile sensibility, earning him a permanent place in the lineage of American masters.

His legacy endures through his works in the permanent collections of MOCA, LACMA, SFMOMA, and the Cleveland Museum of Art among others and through the countless artists he influenced throughout his storied career.
To honor his voice, we share a reflection James wrote in 2016 regarding his life’s work:

“I am a monochrome abstract painter, emphasizing and acknowledging ‘marking’ as the heart and soul of painting. This is my practice. So much blank canvas; so little time.”

Our thoughts are with his family and the global artistic community he so deeply impacted.

Images: Red/Yellow/Blue Ratio Triptych #4, 2010, oil on canvas on board, triptych: 14 x 10.5 in (35.56 x 26.67 cm) each, Abstract #224, 2015, Oil on canvas over panel, 17 x 15 in (43.2 x 38.1 cm), Abstract #224, 2015, oil on canvas over panel, 17 x 15 in (43.2 x 38.1 cm)