Friends and Family Gather at the Getty Center to Remember Betye Saar

The Getty Center's largest auditorium, which seats 450 people, filled this week for a memorial to the artist Betye Saar. She died in July, four days before her 100th birthday.

Fellow artists, curators, friends and family attended the event at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, according to The Art Newspaper. The Getty is a museum and research centre that holds art and archives. Saar had earned her bachelor's degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1949.

Her career was also marked by institutions beyond Los Angeles. In June 2026, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York honoured her at its Party in the Garden gala, a fundraising evening for the museum.

Christophe Cherix, director of MoMA, spoke at the memorial. In his tribute, he recalled visiting Saar's studio in Topanga Canyon, a hillside community outside Los Angeles. The Art Newspaper reported his remarks.

Topanga was Saar's home and studio for many years. She raised three daughters there. Alison Saar is a sculptor, Lezley Saar is a mixed-media artist, who combines different materials in one work, and Tracye Saar is a writer.

The event ended with music. Bennie Maupin, Saar's brother-in-law, played saxophone with the band Bayou Bump as he led a closing procession. Saar had asked for it to end that way.

The memorial was a gathering of the people who knew her work and her family, held in the room that could hold the most of them.