2019 Honorees
Betye Saar
One of the most important artists of her generation, Betye Saar (b.1926) played a seminal role in the development of Assemblage art. Since the 1960s, her work has reflected on African American identity, spirituality, gender, and the connectedness between different cultures. Saar received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949, with graduate studies at California State University at Long Beach, the University of Southern California, and California State University at Northridge. She has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Cornish College of the Arts; California College of Arts and Crafts; California Institute of the Arts; Massachusetts College of Art and Design; Otis College of Art & Design; and San Francisco Art Institute. Saar’s work is included in the permanent collections of more than 80 museums, including—in addition to LACMA—The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Currently exhibitions on view include Betye Saar: Call and Response, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (September 22, 2019–April 5, 2020) travels to The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; and Betye Saar: The Legends of Black Girl’s Window, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, (October 21, 2019–January 4, 2020).
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón (b. 1961) is a four-time Academy Award winner who has written and directed a wide range of acclaimed films. Cuarón made his feature film directorial debut in 1991 with Sólo Con Du Pareja (Live in the Time of Hysteria) which was the biggest box office hit in Mexico in 1992. Cuarón soon after made his American feature film debut with the critically acclaimed motion picture adaptation of the beloved children’s book A Little Princess (1995), which was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Art Direction. That was followed by Great Expectations (1998), a contemporary adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel. With his next feature, Cuarón returned to Mexico to direct a Spanish-speaking cast in the funny, provocative, and controversial road comedy Y Tu Mamá También (2003), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Screenplay. That same year, Cuarón also directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003), the third film in the most successful motion picture franchise of all time, based on the best-selling books by author J.K. Rowling. Cuarón’s next project, Children of Men, was one of the most talked about films of 2006, earning two Academy Award nominations for Cuarón for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Cuarón then won two Academy Awards for directing, producing, and editing Gravity (2013), which he also co-wrote with his son Jonás. In recent years, Cuarón executive produced the documentary This Changes Everything (2015), directed by Avi Lewis, which explores the impact of economic models on climate change; and produced Desierto (2016), written and directed by Jonás, which was released in 2016 by STX Entertainment. Most recently, Cuarón’s Roma (2018) received two Academy Awards for directing and cinematography. The film also won the award for Best Foreign Language.
