Kara Walker

Kara Walker, an African-American contemporary artist is most known for her black cut-paper silhouettes in which she portrays race, identity, gender, sexuality and violence. Kara Walker was born in 1969. Walker received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her first exhibition was in Atlanta in 1991. A few years later, she became the youngest–ever recipient of the ‘Genius Award’ (MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award) at the age of 27 in 1997. Furthermore, Walker seems to have taken a multiculturalist attitude in her private life, appreciating all people and accepting diversity. In 1998, she was interviewed, and she recalled an incident where she found a horrible note from the Ku Klux Klan after she took a walk in the [ark with her white boyfriend John. Walker was frequently disliked for “hanging out” with the white kids. Her romantic attraction to those she calls “white boys” is thought-provoking in the way that it interprets as a recurrent theme in her work.

Kara Walker Art Evaluation

Subject Matter and Technique:

In this piece of art work, Walker is trying to portray a young girl who appears to be either surrounded by fire and is trying to escape this dangerous situation, or she could have set the fire herself with the can in her hand.  

Emotions play a key role in the observation of art work; especially Walker’s art work as she purposely only includes two bold contrast colours: black and white. This could be to convey the emotion or feeling of horror, anger or jealousy in this particular image. Jealousy is a predominantly interesting emotion that this picture could be representing. For example, if this young girl did set the fire herself, then it may be because of a tough time that she went through in her life which Walker may be trying to express; and this tough time could involve hatred which mainly leads to jealousy. Walker once said, “I’m not really about blackness, per se, but about blackness and whiteness, and what they mean and how they interact with one another and what power is all about.” From this quote, it could be inferred that even though she completely separates the two colours, she is a strong believer in equality and is trying to put emphasis and create an impact that there should be a united power and no segregation.

In my copy of Walker’s art work, I used black acrylic paint to create the silhouette effect, though I used black chalk for the smoke to create that smoke looking effect as well as to differentiate the result of this danger which is fire, and the aftermath which is the smoke. In addition, the depth of this art work is flat yet bold from close up as well as from a distance. This could be creating a sense that Walker is trying to make a statement of a young innocent frightened girl up against what could be her last breath as she is surrounded by fire. This statement could be directly related to Walker herself as it may have occurred to her and so she is expressing it through her art work.