Untitled / Kara Walker
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 2006/1.152
- Title
- Untitled
- Artist
- Kara Walker
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- b. 1969
- Medium and Support
- cut paper between linen, mounted in wooden light box
- Object Creation Date
- 1996-1997
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- New York (state)
- New York (county)
- Manhattan
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 3
- New York (state)
- Creation Place 4
- New York (county)
- Creation Place 5
- Manhattan
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase made possible by the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund and anonymous individual benefactors
- Style/Group/Movement
- Postmodern
- Dimensions
- 150.81 cm x 212.09 cm x 19.69 cm (59 3/8 in. x 83 1/2 in. x 7 3/4 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Mixed Media
- Primary Object Type
- assemblage
- Physical Description
- A horizontal lighbox enclosed by a wide, black molded frame in which Kara Walker's signature silhouettes are encased in linen and lit from behind. Silhouettes represent four figures: a man and child at viewer's left, two women at right.
- Subject Matter
- An example of Kara Walker's black cut paper silhouettes, here seen backlit within a large, framed lightbox, that engage viewers in a voyeuristic journey through unspeakable images taken from Walker's take on the Antebellum South. The four central figures, an Anglo American male at left, a child and two females -- all African American -- are engaged in power struggles that evoke both racial domination and struggle as well as sexual engagement and abuse. Visual tension is created by the disparity between the pristinely beautiful silhouettes and the atrocities their interactions represent.
- Primary Keywords
- antebellum
- history (discipline)
- iconography
- profiles (figures)
- sexuality
- silhouettes
- Secondary Keywords
- image form
- visual arts
- associated concepts
- concepts in the arts
- disciplines
- historical, theoretical and critical concepts
- history and related disciplines
- modern american styles and periods
- modern north american periods
- objects we use
- people and culture
- psychological concepts
- social science concepts
- social sciences
- styles and periods
- styles and periods by region
- the americas
- views
- views by vantage point or orientation
- visual works
- visual works by form
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2672 x 1988
- File Size
- 445 KB
- Record
- 2006/1.152
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.152/2006_1.152.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
Cite this Item
View the Help Guide for more information.
- Full citation
-
"Untitled; Kara Walker." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.152/2006_1.152.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 05, 2024.