Kara Walker Artist Analysis

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts and ideologies created a realm for mass exclusion, discrimination, and oppression of many African American women, including Alice Walker’s Mother, who Alice utilizes as one of her particular examples. The writing thematically aims to show how these concepts of sexism, racism, and even classism have contributed to black women’s lack of individuality, optimism, and fulfillment for generations. The author does a tremendous job of defending and expanding upon her arguments. She has a credible background, being a black woman that produces the art of literature herself. As well as being raised by one, Walker’s first-hand experience warrants high regard. Therefore, her use of abstract and introspective language is presented clearly and convincingly. Also, her use of evidence and support from sources like Jean Toomer, Virginia Woolf, and Phillis Wheatley, all produce more validity for her stance through poems, quotes, and even experiences. All these individuals have their own accounts pertaining to the oppression of black women and their individuality. Successfully arguing that the artistry plights of black women described in “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” are

Postmodern American artist’s Cindy Sherman and Kara Walker critique and question grand narratives of gender, race and class through their work and art practice. Cindy Sherman, born 1954, is well renowned for her conceptual portraits of female characters and personas that question the representation of women, gender identity and the true (or untrue) nature of photography (Hattenstone 2011). Kara Walker, born 1969, is known for her black silhouettes that dance across gallery walls and most recently her sugar sphinx, A Subtlety, address America’s racist slavery past (Berry 2003). These practitioners differ in their practical application of different mediums, Sherman constructs characters and scenes of stereotypical female personas in her photographs where she operates as the actress, director, wardrobe assistant, set designer and cameraman (Machester 2001). Simone Hatenstone, writer for The Guardian, states “She 's a Hitchcock heroine, a busty Monroe, an abuse victim, a terrified centrefold, a corpse, a Caravaggio, a Botticelli, a mutilated hermaphrodite sex doll, a man in a balaclava, a surgically-enhanced Hamptons type, a cowgirl, a desperate clown, and we 've barely started.” (Hattenstone 2011).Whereas, Walker creates paper silhouettes that are installed into a gallery space, as writer Ian Berry describes,

Everyone takes impressions as they come across. Most of the time it takes people a little while to see what’s really on the inside. Whether it’s a town, situation, or a person there’s always something hidden underneath whether it’s good or bad it’s always revealed in time, and usually, nothing is how it comes across. The story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson uses symbolism, repetition, and foreshadowing to show how well evil can be hidden by something pleasant and beautiful.

Fiona Lowry, a recognised Australian artist, is a well-known painter. She was born in 1974. She completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours, at the Sydney College of the Arts. She is currently represented by Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide and Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney. Lowry’s artistic ability has been recognised with numerous Art awards. These include the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2008 earning a $100 000-dollar prize and the Fleurieu Art Prize in 2013. Lowry was also a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2011 and in 2013.

By employing themes such as psychosexual fantasies, race, gender, and violence, artist Kara Walker reconstructs and explores the history and effects of American slavery on American culture. Although being called names like notorious, revolting, anti-progressive, and shameless, she continues to be a pioneer of bringing the unspeakable aspects of American slavery that are not commonly discussed and are left out of the history books to the foreground of public discussion.

“I would sometimes go with mother to her office and Mme. Walker was my great-great-grandmother, but she was this larger than life figure. The silverware that we used everyday, when I was growing up, had her monogram and our china, for special occasions, had belonged to her. We had this big, beautiful, silver punch bowl that my mother made eggnog in, every year at Christmas time. So, I knew little things about Mme. Walker and obviously the business was still there, but I really more interested in her daughter, my namesake, A'Lelia Walker, who was part of the Harlem Renaissance, so I really did some of my first writing about her daughter, A'Lelia Walker. Then, when I was in graduate school at Columbia University in

Society seems to change and advance so rapidly throughout the years but there has always seemed to be a history, present, and future when it comes to the struggles of the African Americans. The hatred of a skin tone has caused people to act in violent and horrifying ways including police brutality, riots, mass incarcerations, and many more. There are three movements the renaissance, civil rights, and the black lives matter movements that we have focused on. Our artist come from different eras but have at least one similarity which is the attention on black art.

The archetype in this story which appears to hold the most symbolic value is the quilts that were sewn by her late mother. The struggle the character has in the story is that she holds culturally symbolic value with the quilts her mother sewed and sees that their use was representative to the lifestyle of the post American Slavery culture she and all of her ancestors were apart of and accustomed to. However, her daughter Dee seems to have an extreme level of narcissism towards these

In this particular Artwork of Ann Hamilton, I notice that she constructs a fabricated environment that was labor intensive and it consist of humans with animals. Most of the Materials used drew my attention. According to Ann Hamilton's website, Hamilton and assistants laid 750,000 copper pennies on a honey-coated floor. Behind the pennies sat an isolated figure in plain clothes, wringing its hands over a honey filled felt hat. And behind the figure was an enclosure of grazing sheep. The pennies looked like the scales of a gigantic fish. Hamilton used a lot of materials in this installation that gives the viewer clues to the meaning of the work. For example, She used pennies; the pennies were laid by hand, by laying out the pennies it looks

Every painter has a certain style of painting, whether it's intentional to paint abstract or unintentional to paint as a modernist. I analyzed Abigail Kuchar’s artwork. She is an artist at Western Washington University. Currently, she is enrolled as a student and working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts. Recently, she exhibited her work in a Symbiotic Qualia, Western Gallery (group BFA Thesis Exhibition). Her ideas on visuals are very unique as compare to another artist. Her work is heavily influenced by reoccurring natural forms and patterns, representing, the specific shapes that have been successful in a variety of different applications. For example, the formation of bubbles, lichen, barnacles, anemones, spores, pollen, and seed pods, all have similar compositions. By creating work that includes these forms, the viewer is presented with something unusual, but vaguely familiar. Her material used in the artwork is environment-friendly.

Kara Walker was born on November 26, 1969, in Stockton, California. Her father is an artist and professor while her mother is an administrative assistant. She was inspired by her own father’s work and wanted to do the same thing that her father has done for his life, art. She went to Atlanta College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design and Georgia State University for her education as an artist. Today, she is a painter, silhouettes printmaker, installation artist and also a filmmaker who is interested in what makes up someone identity as a person. Many of her work today is mostly of cut paper silhouettes. She uses these cutouts to represent the racism of the country. She uses different types of art to also represent the silhouettes that

KARA WALKER ARTIST ANALYSIS BIOGRAPHY Kara Walker born in 1969 is an African American contemporary painting, silhouessitist, print maker and installation artist. Through her art she explores and looks at Race, gender, sexuality, violence and idenitiy. Her father was a painter, she was heavily inspired by her father. At the start of her carear she was uncomfortable with experimenting with race, when she went to Rhode Island School of design she starting experimenting with race in her art.

Emma Amos seems like your typical woman with the household duties she upholds. Amos grew up in Atlanta, where she was surrounded by middle class African Americans. As a mother, she focused on sewing, weaving, and quilting. Her artwork displays the issues she struggled with as being a black artist. The artwork “Sandy and her Husband” portray Emma Amos tuck in the painting overlooking a man and a woman embracing each other’s body in a living room. Amos’s artwork wanted people to see a story being shared. Even though she was a black female artist, her paintings expressed the concerns of politics, gender, race, and cultural history.

As I sat down in the open classroom with other LaGuardia students I thought to myself, “I wonder what kind of man is going to speak today. Is he going to be soft-spoken, or eccentric? Is he going to inspire us or send us running for the hills?” I had researched some of his works prior to the sit down, but was the man behind the work going to live up to his infamy? I can truly say he surpasses all the descriptions I had read up on. Dread Scott is a man of revolutionary ideas. Most of his artwork serves to highlight how black America has been depreciated, left to suffer under social constructs such as race, and protests against police brutality.

     The essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by contemporary American novelist Alice Walker is one that, like a flashbulb, burns an afterimage in my mind. It is an essay primarily written to inform the reader about the history of African American women in America and how their vibrant, creative spirit managed to survive in a dismal world filled with many oppressive hardships. This piece can be read, understood, and manage to conjure up many emotions within the hearts and minds of just about any audience that reads it. However, Walker targets African American women in today’s society in an effort to make them understand their heritage and appreciate what their mothers and