"Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville

"no world" from the series "An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters" (2010)

"Sometimes it is hard to look carefully at Walker's art because of how deeply she cuts and how she exposes collective culpability and shame. Still, we cannot retreat. She never does." So ends curator Susan Edward's essay about the exhibit "Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick." Having seen the show at MOCA in Jacksonville, I couldn't agree more. Seeing one or two of Walker's works in an exhibit makes an impression; seeing 80 works in one place leaves you changed. 

The exhibit included the complete works from several of Walker's series, including An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters (2010). This series addresses the "brutality of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacy, as well as the magical thinking of captives dreaming of flying or swimming back to Africa and freedom." (All quotes are from the curator's essay unless otherwise noted.)

I was particularly struck by the figure of the woman in "no world" who is in the water beneath the slave ship. Is she drowning after being thrown off the tumultuous ship? Has she jumped overboard in at attempt to swim to a distant shore? Either way, her chances for survival don't seem good. Perhaps, though, they're better than her alternative. To view the entire series, click here. 

The Emancipation Approximation (Scene#4) (1999-2000)

Walker's The Emancipation Approximation series contains 27 black, white and gray screenprints in which Walker shares her "riff on 'emancipation' or all that did not come with the promise of freedom." It is not easy to view with its images of "sexual dominance, trickery and subjugation." 

So what's going on in the image shown here, number four of the series? Walker references the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan throughout The Emancipation Approximation. If you're not up on your mythology, the god Zeus took the form of a swan to rape Leda. That's what's happening here in mid-air. What is presumably a plantation owner watches on with avid interest. Note that his coattails have morphed into wings and that he's holding something in his hand (at which we can make an educated guess) that takes on the shape of the swan's head. A none-too-subtle hint that the swan is a merely a stand-in. It is beyond disturbing. To see the entire series, click here. 

"Topsy" (1994)

Early on in her career, Walker shocked the art world with her images that harkened back to the racist stereotypes of "Sambo-ism." The word is taken from the illustrations of Helen Bannerman's "The Story of Little Black Sambo," published in 1899. Bannerman was applauded at the time -- in some quarters -- for her forward-thinking positive portrayal of black characters. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the illustrations began to be lambasted as racist. 

The character of Topsy dates back even earlier than Little Black Sambo. Topsy was an enslaved girl in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Like Bannerman, Stowe intended for her character to be sympathetic. When Walker began incorporating the exaggerated features historically associated with Topsy and other Black characters -- the oversized lips, the bug eyes, the wiry hair -- into her work, people didn't know how to react. In a 1997 New York Times article, Walker spoke to the fact that her works sometimes offend people because they feel she is perpetuating negative stereotypes. "I can understand it, and I can't even really talk my way out of it.. she said. "I can't say, 'Well, you shouldn't be offended.' Why not? It's a valid response, it's a valid way to feel." No matter who you are, her works evoke a strong reaction. 

Maquette of "The Katastwof Karavan" (2017) 

Walker is best known for her hand-cut paper silhouettes. (She has incorporated laser cut stainless steel silhouettes into her practice, as shown here in "The Katastwof Karavan.") The 1997 Times article noted that nobody had been using hand-cut paper as a medium since Matisse, an interesting tidbit. Walker talked about her use of the silhouette in a1996 interview in Index Magazine, saying, "The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that's also what the stereotype does, so I saw the silhouette and stereotype as linked." 

From "Resurrection Story with Patrons" (2017

Walker created "The Katastwof Karavan" for the Prospect4 Triennial in New Orleans. The work was a reminder of the institution of slavery, a point emphasized by its placement at Algiers Point, a location on the Mississippi River where enslaved people were held until they were sold into bondage. The work was later displayed on the National Mall in D.C. To read more about "The Katastwof Karavan," click here.  

Each work in "Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick" was striking and thought-provoking, and I wish everyone had had the chance to see the exhibit. The works have been returned to the collection of the Jordan Schnitzler Family Foundation. The Foundation has been working with museums to exhibit and lend works from its collection since 1997, the year in which it acquired its first Kara Walker work. Hopefully another exhibit of Walker's work will be mounted in the future. For now, I'm appreciative of having had the opportunity to see such a significant amount of Walker's work in one place. 

For Kara Walker's website, click here. To read the interview in Index Magazine referenced above, click here. And to read the Times article (titled "Kara Walker's Shock Art"), click here. While much has been written about Walker since she came onto the art scene, I found it interesting to go back to see what critics were saying in the early days of her career. Both are well worth your time.