Artist Alison Saar wins High Museum’s 20th annual Driskell Prize

Alison Saar, the Los Angeles-based artist best known for bravura sculptures that articulate elements of the Black American experience through historic and symbolic imagery, has won the 20th edition of the David C. Driskell Prize.

The annual prize, awarded by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is named for the late artist and curator David Driskell (1931-2020) and alternates each year between honouring an artist and a curator making significant contributions to the field of African American art. It comes with $50,000 in prize money.

“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,” Saar—whose mother is the legendary artist Betye Saar—said in a statement. “When our art is removed from museum exhibitions or our shows are cancelled, 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.”

Saar succeeds the 2024 Driskell Prize winner Naomi Beckwith, the chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The prize’s inaugural winner, in 2005, was the curator Kellie Jones. Past artist honourees include Ebony G. Patterson (2023), Amy Sherald (2018), Mark Bradford (2016) and Rashid Johnson (2012).

Saar was revealed as the winner of the this year’s prize during a reception and panel at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York on 9 May. Though she did not attend in person she sent a heartwarming video about her memories of Driskell. Meanwhile Beckwith, the High Museum’s director Rand Suffolk and the Los Angeles-based curator and dealer Dominique Clayton conducted a conversation about the importance of the prize and the influence of its namesake’s legacy.

“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,” Suffolk said in a statement. “Her sculpture Tobacco Demon has been a fixture in our galleries for decades.”

That 1993 sculpture is emblematic of Saar’s work, which often incorporates reclaimed building materials like shellac and tin ceiling tiles to form stylised figures that are laden with mythological references and and found objects. New Yorkers may know her best for Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial (2007), her monument to the abolitionist crusader that sits at a prominent intersection in Harlem.

Last summer she also unveiled a permanent public statue, Salon (2024), in Paris as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games’ cultural programming. And, closer to her home, the recent sculptural installation Soul Service Station (2025) was one of the most distinctive works featured in the just-closed edition of the Desert X biennial in the Coachella Valley.

Saar will be honoured at the Driskell Prize Gala at the High Museum on 20 September, which will include a performance by the musician John Legend. Funds raised by that event will go toward acquisition and endowment funds named for Driskell, which to date have supported the High Museum’s acquisition of 52 pieces by African American artists for its permanent collection.