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2023, "There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art"
Alison Saar’s art evocatively explores the identities and histories of Black American women. In this work from the Mulvane Art Museum permanent collection, she depicts a woman holding a hot comb between her teeth. The figure is surrounded by the phrases “Congolene Resistance” and “Stubborn and Kinky.” Saar is referencing the 20th-century practice of chemically straightening naturally kinky hair with congolene, a harsh mixture of lye, eggs, and potatoes. Many people of African descent “conked” their hair in reaction to predominant Eurocentric standards of beauty and respectability. In a powerful gesture of defiance, Saar’s figure resists her hair being tamed, asserting her agency and bodily autonomy.Label
2024 post: Throughout 2024, we're looking back at the 100 year history of art at the Mulvane. In this 2021 work, Alison Saar depicts a woman holding a hot comb between her teeth, surrounded by the phrases “Congolene Resistance” and “Stubborn and Kinky.” These reference the practice of chemically straightening kinky hair with congolene, a harsh mixture of lye, eggs, and potatoes. Many people of African descent “conked” their hair in the 20th century in order to comply with Eurocentric beauty standards, but Saar’s figure defiantly resists her hair being tamed.