Alison Saar at Arion Press, San Francisco, Calif., 2024. | Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, Calif., Photograph by Nicholas Lea Bruno
TWENTY YEARS AGO, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga., established a groundbreaking prize named for David C. Driskell (1931-2020), a pivotal figure in American art and leading authority on African American art. Driskell helped build the field of African American art history and was a nexus for those who entered the discipline in his wake.
The David C. Driskell Prize recognizes artists, curators, and scholars making “field-defining” contributions to African American art. As long overdue recognition and representation of African American art and artists has broadened, the significance of the Driskell C. Prize has only increased since it was first awarded in 2005.
This evening, the High Museum announced Los Angeles artist Alison Saar (b. 1956) is the 2025 recipient of the David C. Driskell prize. The $50,000 prize will be awarded on Sept. 20 at the 20th annual Driskell Prize Gala at the High Museum, where the program will include a performance by John Legend.
“Saar’s work delves deeply into the histories of the African diaspora and its artistic traditions, exploring how they influence and connect to cultural identity today. Her sculpture ‘Tobacco Demon’ has been a fixture in our galleries for decades,” High Museum Director Rand Suffolk said in a statement. “We are honored to recognize her distinguished practice and myriad contributions to African American art with the 2025 Driskell Prize.”
Exploring African American experiences, Saar’s work often employs the female figure and references to history, literature, mythology, spirituality, and the natural world. Active for more than 40 years, Saar works across sculpture, installation, mixed-media and printmaking and is particularly known for her public artworks.
In Harlem, Saar’s grand tribute to Harriet Tubman stands 13 feet high. Cast in bronze on a granite base, Tubman is depicted mid stride, powerful and brave moving forward with determination. The installation of “Swing Low” in 2008 was a profound moment. The sculpture is the first public monument dedicated to an African American woman in New York City and has become a neighborhood landmark.
Also in New York, “Feallan and Fallow” (2011) was an installation of six figurative works by Saar in Madison Square Park. Featuring mostly female forms, the project was “inspired by the cyclical forces of nature and by the ancient Greek myth of Persephone” and represented “a metaphoric journey across the four seasons.”
More recently, Saar was commissioned to produce an artwork in commemoration of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. She envisioned a sculpture that would speak to shared humanity and represent the many nations that are coming together in peace to compete. Permanently installed in the public garden of the Champs-Elysées in the 8th Arrondissement, “Salon” (2024) is anchored by a larger-than-life Black female figure facing six different chairs familiar to various cultures around the world. The seats are arranged in a circle, forming a welcoming gathering place for people to sit, reflect, and engage in dialogue.
“At a time when many of the civil rights milestones achieved by previous generations—by our mothers and grandmothers—are being threatened or dismantled, the Driskell Prize empowers Black artists and art historians to push back.” — Alison Saar
Spanning nearly two decades, the prominent public art works encapsulate the themes that form the foundation of Saar’s longstanding, critically recognized practice. Her work has been widely exhibited in an international slate of solo and group shows and is represented in the collection of major museums.
In 1993, the High Museum presented “Fertile Ground,” one of her first solo museum exhibitions. “Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe,” an expansive survey of of the artist, was organized by the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. (2020-21) and the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Calif. (2021). In Washington, D.C., Saar’s work is currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the exhibition “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” (Nov. 8, 2024-Sept. 14, 2025) and “Rouse” (2012), a mixed-media sculpture acquired by SAAM in 2022 is featured in the new installation of the museum’s modern and contemporary art galleries. In addition , her installation “Soul Service Station” is part of Desert X 2025 in Coachella Valley, Calif., which runs through May 11.
Some of the most accomplished artists, scholars, curators, and museum leaders have been recognized with the Driskell Prize. The first recipient was Kellie Jones (2005), Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art and African American & African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University and editor of the new book, “David Hammons (October Files).” Jones served on this year’s review committee.
Also among those who have been awarded the prize: Artists Rashid Johnson (2012), Lyle Ashton Harris (2014), Mark Bradford (2016), Amy Sherald (2018), and Ebony G. Patterson (2023); and Franklin Sirmans (2007), director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; Valerie Cassel Oliver (2011), curator of modern and contemporary art at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Naima J. Keith (2017), vice president of education and public programs at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Naomi Beckwith (2024), deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The latest recipient, Saar said she was honored and emphasized that what the award stands for is more important than ever, given the current climate in which diversity and Black culture and history are under attack.
“I am honored to have been chosen as the 2025 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize,” said Saar. “At a time when many of the civil rights milestones achieved by previous generations—by our mothers and grandmothers—are being threatened or dismantled, the Driskell Prize empowers Black artists and art historians to push back. When our art is removed from museum exhibitions or our shows are canceled, this prize offers not only validation, but also the support to continue making work that is courageous and truthful work that is often stifled by the limitations of mainstream institutions.” CT
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Salon” (2024) (bronze). | Photo by Fred Mauviel, Courtesy City of Paris
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Tobacco Demon,” 1993 (ceiling tin, found objects, and shellac on wood). | High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga., Purchase through funds provided by AT&T New Art/New Visions and 20th-Century Art Acquisition Fund, 1993.17 a-b. © Alison Saar
“Rouse” (2012) by Alison Saar is currently on view in the collection galleries at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The work is displayed near works by Theaster Gates, Mark Bradford, Martin Puryear, Kerry James Marshall, and Thornton Dial Sr. In the video, Saar introduces her practice and explains the symbolism of the sculpture: “The piece is female figure who is kind of between two worlds. She has this sort of animal’s hoof, which is these deer hooves and these large antlers. She’s standing amongst what looks like a 100 antler sheds. Deer shed their antlers annually. I kind of used the antlers to be a marking of time, that you know she gone through so many seasons so to speak. | Video by SAAM
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Feral Son,” circa 1980 (mixed media). | High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga., Gift of Barbara Bowen Moore and H. Clay Moore, Jr., 1999.155. © Alison Saar
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Stubborn and Kinky,” 2023 (wood, ceiling tin, wire, chain, and found scissors, 76 × 24 × 20 inches / 193 × 61 × 50.8 cm). | Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchased through
the Board of Advisors Acquisition Fund. © Alison Saar. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, Calif.
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Little Big Sister,” 2023-24 (cast stainless steel with patina). | Collection of the Joselyn © Alison Saar. Courtesy L.A. Louver, Venice, Calif.
ALISON SAAR (American, born 1956), “Soul Service Station,” 2025 (mixed media installation). | © Alison Saar. Courtesy L.A. Louver, Venice, Calif., Photography by Lance Gerber
BOOKSHELF
The exhibition catalog “Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe” (2020) is the first major monograph of the artist. It accompanied a show co-organized by the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., and the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Calif. Several other publication document the work of Alison Saar. Earlier volumes include “Mirror, Mirror: The Prints of Alison Saar: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation,” and “Body Politics: The Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar.” Also consider, “Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar.”
