Kara Walker Analysis

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Pages: 3

Kara (Elizabeth) Walker was born in Stockton, California, on November 26, 1969. Kara was raised in Stockton by her father who was also a painter. Inspired by her father’s work, she began to focus on becoming a painter as well. She started off dreaming of creating fine art in her early years but as she grew older, her ambitions changed. She worried less about aesthetics and focused more on storytelling and sending powerful messages through her work. Walker attended the Rhode Island School of design, where she began working in the silhouette form. She has been awarded for her famous room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Kara is a contemporary painter, print-maker, installation artist, and film-maker who adventures in race, sex, sexuality, violence, and identity in her art. In her creations, she leaves plenty of room for interpretation by providing a suspenseful and usually deep, symbolic meaning outlook.

Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994)
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This particular piece showcased her signature style that would develop throughout her later work. This grand piece contains various silhouettes interacting independently but all connected as a whole. This piece first depicts a storybook romance of the couple leaning in for a kiss under the moon. As you start to look past the couple, things begin to take a much darker turn. There’s the depiction of sex and violence in close inspection, along with child birth and other things. The meaning of this piece is open to interpretation, but I see inequality, poverty, chaos, and a difference in people’s perception of themselves. Her work says a lot about everything, with very little