49
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BETYE SAAR (1926 - )
Untitled (Clock with Charms)
.
Mixed-media assemblage, with a Kienzle, Germany quartz (AA battery powered) clock, circa 1975.
343x178x95 mm; 13
1
/
2
x7x3
3
/
4
inches (including base).
Provenance: private collection, NewYork; thence by descent to the current owner.
Covered in amulets, charms and good luck symbols, including a roller skate, a horse shoe and a
heart, this mysterious and Surrealist assemblage conveys Beyte Saar’s interest in both ritual and the
passage of time.The door clockface and the many clock face charms all reinforce the relative nature
of time. Saar here is also directly referencing Joseph Cornell with the Surrealist symbols of the two
glass balls and the blue parrot. Saar has described how she was inspired by a 1967 exhibition of
Cornell at the Pasadena Art Museum - “the installation was very jewel-like and it seemed to fit the
way that I made art, I had been working within a frame and then the frame became a window and
the window became a box. I realized that by changing the function of an object, I could transform
information and magic.” Steward p. 18.
[6,000/9,000]
