Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
Inscription
u.edge, l. corner, in graphite: 7/20; u.edge, center, in graphite: A Means to An End
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Kara Walker is a young African-American artist living and working in Providence, RI. Looking back to 19th-century American cut-paper silhouettes forming tableaux, the artist makes panoramic prints that simulate shadow plays. Characteristically Walker’s prints are on racial themes and feature pre-Civil War stereotypes: slave and master, adult and child. This suite of five prints shows a swampland with the heads of escaping slaves visible above the surface of the water; the scene is enframed by a mother nursing a child at left and a master throttling the neck of a captured slave child at right. These enigmatic narrative elements evoke the distant world of the historical novel. Both the use of silhouettes and the sobriquets enable the artist to distance herself and the viewer from the suggestions of physical violence and sexual threat on the part of the master, and the passive acceptance of these acts by the victimized slaves.
The prints was published in an edition of 20 by Landfall Press in Chicago. The fine aquatint texture of the black areas with their crisp, curving contours makes a voluptuous contrast with the velvety surface of the heavy, smooth cream Somerset Satin wove paper.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Blurred image of a male nude figure bending forward from a standing position so that his hands nearly touch the ground.
Subject Matter
Meditation on mortality, memory, and loss in the aftermath of AIDS.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
Bill Jacobson describes his purpose in making his experimental soft-focus photographs as “an ongoing meditation around desire, loss, and the role of photography as a vehicle for remembrance.” Through his ambiguous figures, which seem to simultaneously suggest both emergence and dissolution, Jacobson directly addresses the way photographs can so poignantly preserve a moment from the past even as they document that moment’s passing. In doing so he makes photography into a meditation on the essence of mortality. “Most photographs,” he explains, “are meant as documents of moments we wish to hold onto forever. My work suggests that these moments, like life itself, are constantly fading into the past.” While not specifically about the AIDS epidemic that struck the community of New York artists in the eighties and nineties, Jacobson’s photographs document a community and era ravaged by disease.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Verso: inscribed in black ball-point pen, center:" Pozzi/23 feb 1995/"The New Bustle"
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A bulbous vessel with a narrow base and wide mouth that is flanged. The vessel is made up of small, glued pieces of wood that are then turned, creating an intricate pattern in the wood's fine, finished surface. The predominate decorations are bands of diamonds and triangles that run around the widest point of the vessel and beneath the flanged mouth.
Large wood vessel with rings of Native American-inspired design patterns
Subject Matter
This vessel was made first by gluing together small pieces of different woods and then turning the entire piece, leaving the pattern created by the pieces of wood in the finished surface. Allen was influenced by the Native American pottery of the Southwest and tried to reproduce its forms and decorative motifs in wood.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
After nearly thirty years as a carpenter, Ray Allen retired to Yuma, Arizona; there the southwestern traditions of pottery moved Allen, a self-taught woodturner, and stirred his imagination. “My inspiration,” he wrote, “came from prehistoric and present day Southwest pottery,” and his goal became to capture its elegant forms and intricate designs in wood. To do this he used the technique of segmented woodturning, in which a mosaic of different types of wood pieces are formed into rings and glued together to make a whole with a stunning chromatic range. Starting from the bottom, Allen added rings, one at a time, and each was turned and sanded to the proper diameter. Once formed, the vessel was shaped on a large lathe, creating an elegant silhouette with undulating curves and multiple registers of pattern. Lastly, the interior was turned to the desired wall thickness for the size of the finished piece—a tribute to the “everlasting beauty,” in the artist’s words, of the pottery that inspired it and a virtuoso display of the woodturner’s art.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
63.5 cm x 142.24 cm x 32.39 cm (25 in. x 56 in. x 12 3/4 in.)
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Self-taught in woodturning technique and design, Michael Mode learned many of his woodworking skills while working on electric guitar bodies for the Martin Guitar Company.
The character and style of Mode’s work reflect his interest in and fascination with the art and architecture of India and the Islamic world. Like the winged and domed shapes reminiscent of Mughal buildings, Covered Bowl 95-29 is beautifully proportioned with lyrical lines and swelling curves. Mode also draws inspiration from the material itself, using exotic burl and figured woods. It is the interplay however of openness and closure in a lidded form that intrigues Mode the most. “A lidded vessel, like a person, offers a choice of openness or privacy; possesses secret inside spaces that can’t be touched.”
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
