Enduring Voices Catalogue (6-21-23) - Flipbook - Page 49
Kara
WALKER
(b. 1969)
Born in Stockton, California, Kara Walker uses drawing, painting,
film, and sculpture to explore the tragic legacy of slavery. She is
best known, however, for using cut-paper silhouettes to depict
the historical violence against and subjugation of the women in
her stories.
Influenced by her father, who worked as a painter and professor,
Walker earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from the Atlanta
College of Art and then a master’s of fine arts from the Rhode
Island School of Design. Success quickly followed with her debut
featuring a 25-foot-long wall installation at the Drawing Center
in Manhattan. The work, Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil
War as It Occurred b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress
and Her Heart (1994), featured silhouettes of antebellum figures
engaged in violent and sexual interactions. At 28, she became
the second youngest recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s
“Genius Grant.”
KARA WALKER
ART THAT IS STRONG
We like things that are strong. Most of the African
American works on view are representational, and yet
if you looked at our collection of prints from the 1980s
and 1990s — the Robert Motherwells and the Louise
Nevelsons — they are all abstract. So, people ask, are
you interested in representational art or abstract art?
The answer is that we are interested in everything.
We like things with color, and we also like things that
are black-and-white. We just really like work that
stands out. We like the strength of the piece. The
Kara Walkers show how diverse art is in many ways
— not just the obvious. They are a portfolio done for
a new book edition of Porgy and Bess. Now we have
ambitions for more. These weren’t hanging on the
walls of the house at all — Cindy Petersen discovered
them in a portfolio in our library.
–Susan S. and David R. Goode
Her silhouette work reflects the Victorian ladies’ art of shadow
portraits, with the large scale of some of her installations hinting of
the cycloramas that depicted 360-degree battle scenes in artwork
after the Civil War. Walker’s works over the years have continued
to focus in large part on bridging and exposing the folklore of the
Antebellum South, looking deeply into identity and gender issues
among African American women.
I think Porgy and Bess lives in a murky place in
popular culture and personal reflection. Music
softens the lines, obscures the racism in the text
until it looks very much like what it is — a folk
tale of its age.
—Kara Walker
Interesting Walker Fact:
While many laud Kara Walker’s work, she has also drawn controversy. Black artists, particularly those among the generations before her,
have labeled her work as a form of betrayal to slaves. Artist Betye Saar was among a group who led a letter-writing campaign protesting
Walker’s selection for the MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 1997, and in 1999 the Detroit Institute of Art removed her piece The Means to an End:
A Shadow Drama in Five Acts when Black artists and collectors protested its presence.
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