Blue Plate Special

Alison Saar, artist

born 1956

Vinalhaven Press, publisher

active 1985–1999

Blue Plate Special, 1993

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: etching; lithograph; chine collé

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 622 x 622 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 721 x 622 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 24 1/2 x 24 1/2 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 28 3/8 x 24 1/2 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 36 x 30 1/4 x 1 in
Weight (Weight): 11 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1995.0009

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Visible and Divisible America: In Conversation with the 2019–2020 KU Common Book

Alison Saar’s Blue Plate Special evokes connections to JudeoChristian accounts of the beheading of John the Baptist and to acts of violence perpetuated against black men throughout American history. A “blue plate special” is the low-cost deal of the day in diners or cafés, suggesting that the traumatic outcome we see here costs the perpetrators and beneficiaries of this violence very little.

Visible and Divisible America: In Conversation with the 2019–2020 KU Common Book

Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2016 KU Common Book

“Disembodiment is a kind of terrorism, and the threat of it alters the orbit of all our lives and, like terrorism, this distortion is intentional. Disembodiment. The dragon that compelled the boys I knew, way back, into extravagant theater of ownership. Disembodiment. The demon that pushed the middle-class black survivors into aggressive passivity, our conversation restrained in public quarters, our best manners on display, our hands never out of our pockets, our whole manner ordered as if to say, ‘I make no sudden moves.’ Disembodiment. The serpent of school years, demanding I be twice as good, though I was but a boy. Murder was all around us and we knew, deep in ourselves, in some silent space, that the author of these murders was beyond us, that it suited some other person’s ends. We were right.” ("Between the World and Me," p. 114)

Archive Label 2003:
Similar to Adrian Piper, Alison Saar comes from a diverse racial and ethnic background. When looking at Saar’s work, consider the image and what audiences Saar is attempting to reach.

• The severed head of a man is the focus of this work. What is the racial identity of the man?

• Consider the title of the work and the time period that Saar is referencing. What associations do you make with the diner expression of “blue plate special”?

Blue Plate Special is derived from Saar’s 1988 sculpture titled Salome. In a Christian biblical story, Salome was responsible for the death of John the Baptist who was beheaded by her father, King Herod. The story is frequently depicted in art and an example can be found in the Renaissance gallery on the 3rd-floor of the Spencer Museum. Saar combines classical images with contemporary subjects and issues, attempting to reach diverse audiences. She has used a classical art image of a biblical story as a metaphor for the racism and discrimination experienced by African Americans during the pre-civil rights era. Saar often incorporates found objects in her work believing that old, discarded materials have their own wisdom and story to tell. For example, the background for Blue Plate Special is pressed from a ceiling tile.

Saar is best known for her large-scale assemblages, frescoes, large drawings, and sculptures. Due to Saar’s African-American, European, and Native American ancestry, she has always engaged in issues of identity and in finding a common ground among different cultures. Even though Saar identifies herself with her mother’s African-American ancestry, she has found herself marginalized by both blacks and whites due to her light skin tone.

Archive Label:
Saar’s mother Betye is a sculptor, as is Saar, who only recently began making prints. Blue Plate Special derives from a 1988 sculpture titled Salome. The sculpture depicted Herod’s daughter with the head of St. John the Baptist. The print relates more broadly to issues of race and gender. Saar’s sculpture and prints often employ found objects; here the relief background is impressed from ceiling tiles.