Kara walker
Kara Walker
is a contemporary African-American artist born in Stockton, California in the
USA in 1969. She is best known for her panoramic friezes of cut-paper
silhouettes, using black figures against a white wall which mainly represents
slavery and violence. Her art consists on themes such as race, gender,
sexuality, violence and identity. She likes to explore these conflicted themes
because she believes that they are still standing strong in the world.
Kara Walker’s father used to be an
artist himself and she states this; “one of my earliest memories involves
sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching
him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that too,’ and I pretty much
decided then and there at the age of 2 or 3 that I was an artist just like
Dad”. There is no doubt that her father was the biggest influence on her art
career and the reason she decided to draw and bring her ideas to life. But Kara
Walker also became really interested in Andy Warhol’s Pop art in the 1960s and
Robert Colescott who inserted cartoonish Dixie sharecroppers into his version
of Vincent van Gogh’s Dutch peasant cottages.
Kara Walker
first became known in 1994 with her mural ‘Gone’, presenting an art filled with
sex and slavery and it was then an instant hit in the art world. She has done a
lot of exhibitions all around the world and her work always attracts people of
all gender and race with different views and opinions.
Kara Walker
gets her ideas and inspiration from images from historical textbooks that show
how African American slaves were depicted during Antebellum South. Other than
her talent to draw and create such beautiful works of art she has also taken
part in ochre gouaches, video animation, shadow puppets, and
"magic-lantern" projections.
Kara Walker
says this about her work ‘Gone’ in an interview to the website Art21: “Gone, a
historical romance of civil war as it occurred between the dusky thighs of one
young negress and her heart”. I really like the spooky mysterious atmosphere
that Kara Walker created in this piece. The guy holding a sword on his back
hand and the women almost hiding someone under her dress confuses people’s
thoughts and makes them wonder. In my opinion I think Kara Walker was trying to
show that everybody has secrets but at some point or another they will end up
being unmasked/shown.
In my
opinion Kara Walker’s work is really intriguing and it instantly catches my
attention to discover what she was trying to represent with her piece. Her art
is the kind of art that makes you stop and think about what she was trying to
achieve by doing it. Some of her art is so bizarre and shocking that it becomes
so interesting to look at and explore the feelings and emotions behind it. I
believe her art is inspirational and challenging. I really like her art and how
she keeps her audience guessing.
Useful websites: all visited on
30/09/14.
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