New York Historical to celebrate Betye Saar’s 100th birthday with Black dolls exhibition

Betye Saar (b. 1926), Hoo Doo Woman, 1974. Mixed fabrics with metal jewelry, leather, and beads. The New York Historical, Promised gift of Betye Saar. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects Los Angeles, California. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

The New York Historical announced a new exhibition, “Betye Saar’s Black Dolls,” to mark the 100th birthday of the pioneering assemblage artist. The exhibition, which runs from May 8 through Oct. 4, 2026, centers on Saar’s extensive personal collection of Black dolls and her decades-long artistic engagement with them as symbols of identity and history.

The exhibition features a selection of 27 dolls from a landmark promised gift of more than 100 dolls to the museum’s permanent collection. The display also includes 15 watercolors and several of Saar’s signature assemblages, which reframe racist Americana into structures of mystical and symbolic power. Saar, a key figure in the 1970s Black Arts and feminist movements, began collecting the dolls in the late 1960s after realizing she had grown up in the 1920s and 1930s without ever owning a Black doll.

“I have always been drawn to the intangible energy of used materials—discarded materials that I recycle and make anew,” Saar said. “I collect a lot of things, and dolls have been consistent companions in this; I keep them in a cupboard, where all their energy is concentrated.” Saar noted that during recent years, she found comfort in the dolls, remarking that “at 95 [at the time], I was still playing with my dolls.”

Highlights of the exhibition include “Hoo Doo Woman” (1974), the only Black doll designed and created by Saar herself, which she describes as a “healer doll casting a spell.” Also featured are “topsy-turvy” dolls—designed to flip between a Black girl and a white girl—and the 2022 watercolor “Black Floating Doll in Mystic Sky,” which depicts a late 19th-century doll suspended in a celestial landscape.

“This extraordinary promised gift of more than 100 Black dolls—spanning the 19th century to the present—marks a transformative addition to our collection,” said Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical. The exhibition is curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto and Rebecca Klassen. The New York Historical is located at 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.

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