Advanced Search 
Both Big Singe and Blonde Dreams demonstrate the potency and expressive power of hair as a material, specifically in its relationship to concepts like race and gender. Alison Saar repurposes a cotton seed sack for the former, which pictures an enormous hot comb used to, she says, "press the wildness out of your hair." Saar imbues the comb with life by transforming its handle into a "haint" (a spirit in folklore of the American South), giving "the wildness dispelled from the hair a place to settle." The stains, tears, and signs of wear on the seed sack further animate the print. Blonde Dreams mediates the constrictions of Eurocentric beauty standards. A Black woman strokes her long golden hair, but finds herself bound by the rope around her feet—symbolizing the ways in which aesthetic values rooted in whiteness have the capacity to oppress.
Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Blonde Dreams
Alison Saar (American, born in 1956)
Printer and Publisher: Tandem Press, Madison, Wisconsin (American, founded in 1987)
Printer and Publisher: Tandem Press, Madison, Wisconsin (American, founded in 1987)
2021
Medium/Technique
Woodcut and screenprint on Okawara paper
Dimensions
Framed: 175.9 × 38.4 cm (69 1/4 × 15 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 167.6 × 30.5 cm (66 × 12 in.)
Sheet: 167.6 × 30.5 cm (66 × 12 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Phyllis and Richard Slocum
Accession Number2022.1350
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints
Both Big Singe and Blonde Dreams demonstrate the potency and expressive power of hair as a material, specifically in its relationship to concepts like race and gender. Alison Saar repurposes a cotton seed sack for the former, which pictures an enormous hot comb used to, she says, "press the wildness out of your hair." Saar imbues the comb with life by transforming its handle into a "haint" (a spirit in folklore of the American South), giving "the wildness dispelled from the hair a place to settle." The stains, tears, and signs of wear on the seed sack further animate the print. Blonde Dreams mediates the constrictions of Eurocentric beauty standards. A Black woman strokes her long golden hair, but finds herself bound by the rope around her feet—symbolizing the ways in which aesthetic values rooted in whiteness have the capacity to oppress.
Provenance2022, sold by Tandem Press, Madison, WI to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 22, 2022)