Luminous and tranquil, Saar’s newest installation uses natural objects and materials to take the viewer on a spiritual journey

This volume features the Huntington Library and Museum’s commissioned site-specific installationDrifting toward Twilight(2023) by Betye Saar (born 1926). A solitary canoe drifts on a bed of brambles, illuminated by a cool neon glow. Inside, three passengers are transported to a mystical destination by two otherworldly beings. Guided by the dawn, the dusk and the phases of the moon, they transition from one cosmic reality to another. Part dreamscape and part altar,Drifting toward Twilightconjures journeys and the constant cycles of the natural world. Like cards pulled from a tarot deck, each object inside takes on a symbolic power: a monumental canoe, birdcages, antlers and plant material harvested from the Huntington’s grounds. This richly illustrated companion book includes a preface and a 1973 interview with the artist by author and longtime friend Ishmael Reed. Other contributions include a profile by Hilton Als and a new interview with the artist by Sla Saar Agustsson, her granddaughter.

Hilton Als is a writer with focus in theater criticism. He became a staff writer atThe New Yorkerin 1994, a theater critic in 2002, and chief theater critic in 2013. His bookWhite Girls(2013) discusses various narratives around race, identity, gender, and sexuality, and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism.
Ishmael Reedis the author of over twenty-five books includingMumbo Jumbo,Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down,Conjugating Hindi,Why No Confederate Statues in Mexicoand most recentlyMalcolm and MeandWhy the Black Hole Sings the Blues. He is also a publisher, television producer, songwriter, radio and television commentator, lecturer, and has long been devoted to exploring an alternative black aesthetic: the trickster tradition, or Neo-Hoodooism. A regular contributor toCounterPunchand founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley for over thirty years, retiring in 2005. Reed is the only person to be nominated for the National Book Award in two categories in the same year.
Dr. Christina Nielsen is William and Lia Poorvu curator of the collection and exhibition program at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

• Publisher:Huntington Library Press
• Publish Date: April 1, 2025
• Pages:96
• Dimensions: 9.4 X 11.3 X 0.6 inches | 1.9 pounds
• Language:English
• Type:Hardcover
• EAN/UPC:9781646570423
• BISAC Categories:Individual Artists – Monographs, Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions – General,American – African American,History – General