Kara Walker - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Tuesday, October 12, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York

  • Catalogue Essay

    Few artists working today have managed to capture themes of race, gender, sexuality and violence as provocatively as Kara Walker. Best known for her tableaux of cut-out silhouettes, Walker's art is a compelling exploration of the legacy of slavery and antebellum folklore of the American South. Walker's visual vocabulary borrows from black memorabilia, Civil War etchings, historical novels, cinema, cartoons, newspaper clippings and Harlequin Romances. The cast of characters are shown with exaggerated, almost caricatured physiognomy, parodying the ramifications of slavery and racism. Walker's characters inhabit a topsy-turvy world of mischief and violence, and of sexual stigmatization and exclusion – a world that is suspended between past and present. By blending literary genre and fictional narrative, Walker presents the viewer with a whimsical yet haunting portrayal of depravity and exploitation.
     

  • Artist Biography

    Kara Walker

    American • 1969

    Kara Walker sugarcoats nothing. Her masterpiece public art commission, A Subtlety, 2014, was a 35-foot high racial confrontation of artifact, mythology and American history in the form of a sphinx packed from 80-tonnes of Domino white sugar crystals. Walker's practice first caught audiences with her haunting paper cutout silhouettes retelling the injustices of slavery and the foundations of American capitalist culture.

    Walker's immense talent matched by her cunning commentary has made her one of the most important contemporary artists today, having enjoyed major exhibitions at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York in addition to permanent placements within the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Art Institute Chicago. Her auction market is strong for a mid-career artist, with works reaching more than $300,000.

    View More Works

6

Me "Jane"

1999
Crayon, ink and tempera on paper. 
165.1 × 182.9 cm (65 × 72 in).

Estimate
£80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for £85,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

13 October 2010
London