Kara Walker

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11th grade Art Mapa Mental sobre Kara Walker, criado por Joseph Gianotti em 12-02-2021.
Joseph Gianotti
Mapa Mental por Joseph Gianotti, atualizado more than 1 year ago
Joseph Gianotti
Criado por Joseph Gianotti quase 4 anos atrás
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Resumo de Recurso

Kara Walker
  1. Basic Information
    1. Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California in 1969 to a secretary mother and painter father. She grew up in an integrated neighborhood, but was transplanted to Georgia at the age of 13 when her father accepted a position at the University of Georgia.
      1. Walker states that she was berated with slurs and insults in her new town, which also was known for holding Klu Klux Klan rallies. She received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
    2. Art Career
      1. While in college at the Atlanta College of Art, Walker expressed hesitation at approaching the topic of race in her art for fear of coming off as “obvious” or “typical”. She gained notoriety in 1994, when one of her murals entitled “Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart.”
        1. This piece, made up of silhouettes cut from black paper and pasted onto gallery walls, takes on shocking themes of sex and slavery. It was shown at the Drawing Center in New York City.
          1. After this show, she gained a following, though not an entirely positive one. She was criticized heavily by other Black artists (whose careers dated to the 1960s) for utilizing racial stereotypes about the African American community. They perceived the use of these stereotypes as opportunistic, and as an attempt to insert herself into a racist, white-dominated are world.
            1. In 1997, artists even worked in conjunction with museums to try to boycott Walker’s art. Her marriage to a white man was also a subject of the attack, which Walker responded to in a series of drawings entitled “Do You Like Creme in Your Coffee and Chocolate in Your Milk?”.
              1. This series of drawings demonstrates the versatility of perspective with which she addresses the topic of race, taking on a variety of different “personas” which define her experience as a black woman in America.
        2. In 1997, she received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”. Her art has been featured in galleries worldwide, and in 2002, she traveled to São Paulo Biennial to serve as the U.S. representative. In 2006, her exhibition After the Deluge was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, juxtaposing the museum’s pieces featuring the power of water with her own works, drawing inspiration from the recent Hurricane Katrina.
          1. It wasn’t until 2014 that Walker ventured into sculpture, debuting a sphinx-like “mammy” sculpture entitled A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby at the Domino sugar processing facility which was scheduled for demolition shortly after the exhibition. This piece showed for 8 weeks, and garnered 130,000 in its time on display. Like many of her other works, it raised questions about the intersection of slavery, racial stereotypes, and the sexualization of women.
        3. Art Style
          1. Kara Walker uses a variety of distinct techniques in her works. Some of her most popular have been silhouettes, which she creates using pieces of cut out black paper or linoleum. She uses the element of shape to portray racial stereotypes about the appearance of black people.
            1. She also would use cyclorama, placing her silhouettes and colored projections in a circular room to surround the viewer.
              1. The Keys to the Coop is a classic example of Walker’s use of silhouettes. It depicts a young girl in a raggedy dress holding the head of a chicken, poised to consume it. Her silhouette has stereotypically black features, and the girl’s tongue is sticking out.
                1. She is twirling a key, presumably the “keys to the coop” on her finger. This piece approaches race in many different ways. Firstly, the piece makes use of many racial stereotypes about black people. Her hair, lips, and nose are meant to bring the commonly held stereotype about what “blackness” looks like to the forefront.
                  1. It also makes shockingly clear the racist attitudes held by many about black people. The girl is seen consuming a chicken head with her tongue out as the bird runs away from her, harkening to the idea of “savagery” that racists have used to defend slavery. The depiction of the girl eating the chicken head (alongside her raggedy clothing) may also be in reference to the way which slaves were treated.
                    1. They were regularly underfed and given poor quality food, and were condemned to wearing old, worn out clothing. The use of the keys also harkens to slavery and a struggle for power, as those with the “key” were the ones in control. The mention of “coop” brings up images of confinement, a theme that can easily be associated with slavery.
            2. Many times, Walker integrates projections into her silhouette works. The purpose of that is when the viewer enters the room where the work is displayed, their silhouette will be transported into the scene, leading the viewer to question the ways in which racism affects their lives, whether they are complicit in the upholding of modern day racist systems or continue to suffer due to the legacy of slavery.
              1. Examples of this can be seen in both the Darkytown Rebellion and Hair. Both display the Antebellum south. There are various figures and “scenes”within the Darkytown Rebellion.
                1. There are two figures holding flags which look more like sails on ships, perhaps making mention of the ships which the colonizers arrived on to the United States or the ships on which slaves were carried. A woman is seen breastfeeding with her breasts prominently shown, perhaps bringing attention to the fact that many female slaves were forced to devote their lives to having and caring for children which they were forced to carry.
                  1. There are three figures participating in a sexual scene, a theme which is seen prominently in many of Walker’s works (often placed next to themes of violence). The figure of a woman can be seen sweeping away a baby’s leg, perhaps representing a southern wife attempting to hide the evidence of her husband impregnating a slave.
                    1. As a whole, The Darkytown Rebellion and Hair show disturbing scenes which are meant to inspire discomfort in the viewer. They represent the unnerving and inhumane reality that was life as a slave. By projecting the silhouette of the viewer into the scene, Walker is not allowing the viewer to comfortably distance themselves from this reality. Rather, she is making it as inescapable and horrifying as it was for the slaves.
              2. Walker’s piece: Untitled (Emancipation Proclamation) is an example of one of her drawings. While its composition is a lot more simple compared to the aforementioned works, it still carries a very pungent message regarding racial stereotypes.
                1. It depicts a black woman about to step into an open bear trap. This woman’s features are exaggerated, and she is depicted in a way commonly seen in much anti-black art. The piece has its title and the word “gingerly” which means carefully.
                  1. Not much analysis, by art critics or by Walker herself, has been made public. One analysis of this piece may be that despite how carefully or “gingerly” a black person navigates society, there are still many “bear traps” left behind from our nation’s racist history which they may fall into, ultimately harming them.

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