Kara Walker - Editions & Works on Paper: Online Auction New York Wednesday, September 6, 2023 | Phillips

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  • "This short story, illustrated with pop-up versions of Walker’s famous silhouettes, appears to be a vintage children’s book but is actually a contemporary tale of racism and gender discrimination. Set in the Civil War era, Freedom: A Fable tells the story of a female slave who is granted emancipation but still experiences oppression, discovering that freedom is indeed a fable. Walker’s tale addresses the persistence of negative stereotypes that emerged in the minstrel shows, novels, and artworks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By presenting her work as a book—an intimate object meant to be held, read, and paged through—Walker implicates us in the never-ending story of troubled race relations." – Princeton University Art Museum

    • 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.

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Freedom: A Fable

1997
Laser-cut paper pop-up book, bound in brown leather (as issued).
9 1/4 x 8 3/8 x 3/4 in. (23.5 x 21.3 x 1.9 cm)
From the edition of 4000, published by The Peter Norton Family Christmas Project, New York.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for $1,778

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Editions & Works on Paper: Online Auction

6 - 13 September 2023