KARA WALKER

Erika Bello                                                                

Professor Harmon

HUA 101

6/10/16

Kara Walker

     Kara Walker is an African American contemporary artist and painter. Walker was born in Stockman, California in 1969. She graduated from Atlanta College of art around 1991. She earned a master of fine Arts degree at Rhode Island school of design. Walker explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity through her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. According to Walker one of her artwork called ‘’Darkytown Rebellion’’ uses projectors to throw colored light onto the ceiling, walls, and floor. Some of Walker’s work is at the Museum of Modern Art. Also her works includes themes of African American racial identity. Walker subjects slavery, conflict or violence. According to Walker, she utilizes light projectors to cast viewers’ own shadows into her silhouetted narratives to create a deep experience. The silhouette is meaningful to walker’s form because it’s a metaphor for stereotype. The silhouette allows Walker to play tricks with the eye. Walker's artwork is about racism in the present and economic inequalities. While Walker's work is based on traditions of storytelling, she combines fact and fiction to complete the picture. Some of Walker’s influences include artist Andy Warhol, Otto Dix and Adrian Piper also some movement that influenced her was pop art, conceptual art and surrealism. Walker's art is heavily influenced by growing up as an African American in the South, where she struggled with the relationship between personal and political identities. One of Walker’s motives was to investigate interracial desire. In addition she studied "myths about blackness. Walker’s story is a result of her African American experience. Walker's elegant lines of her silhouettes, create an interesting tension with the scenes ofsex, and violence.  At age twenty-seven, she was receive the MacArthur "genius" award. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.

Work Cited

"Kara Walker." American Decades Primary Sources. Ed. Cynthia Rose. Vol. 10: 1990-1999. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 37-40. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2016.

URL
http://go.galegroup.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3490201854&v=2.1&u=cuny_laguardia&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=fd2adf0e318eb58ee2b28ecb88289ca6

Decker, Ed, and Paula Kepos. "Walker, Kara." Contemporary Black Biography. Ed. Derek Jacques, Janice Jorgensen, and Paula Kepos. Vol. 80. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 147-150. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2016.

URL
http://go.galegroup.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2624500055&v=2.1&u=cuny_laguardia&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=5a7ea03bf1b0a4ffefff8f23e5c81a4e

Week of May 20- Museum of Modern Art

Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century. It was created by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque in Paris around 1907 and 1914. Cubism was the first abstract style of modern art. A Cubist painter wanted to emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas. They reduced geometric forms. Also cubist painting ignores the traditions of perspective drawing. Picasso and Braque combined representational motifs with letters. Cubism makes visible some important characteristics of modern life. Cubism suggest constant change and evolution. In addition in cubist artwork objects are analyzed, broken up.

Surrealism originated in mid 1920s by a group of writer and painters protest the direction of European culture. They proclaimed the importance of the unconscious mind of dreams, fantasies and hallucinations. Surrealism was launched in Paris in 1924. Abstract Surrealism provides suggestive elements that give wide play to the viewers imagination and emphasize color and design. This painting is called Gala Éluard  by Artist Max Ernst made in 1924. Ernst met poet Paul Éluard in Cologne in 1921. In 1922, Ernst moved to Paris, where he lived with the Éluards until 1924. By then he had become one of the founding members of Surrealism. The top of her head peels away and scrolls forward like a poster from a wall.

Week of May 13- Postwar Modern Movements

      Kiki Smith is a West German born in Germany in 1954. Smith's work addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. She grew was in New Jersey with her parents. Smith's father was a Geometric Sculptures this allowed her to experience with art. By allowing her to make cardboard models for his sculptures. Smith's theme of work was subjected around AIDS, gender and race. Her father's death in 1980 and by the AIDS death of her sister, Smith began an investigation of the human body. While she depicted the human condition in relationship to nature. In 1988 she explore a wide range of human organ including sculptures of heart, lungs, liver and stomach. Exploring bodily fluids as response to the AIDS crises and women's right. Growing up in the Catholic Church and understanding the human body, has shaped her work. In 1980s, Smith began draw based on organs and the human nervous system. Smith received many medal for her sculptures and painting. For example she received the ''Skohegan medal in 2000, the''Athena award for excellence in printmaking in 2005 etc. Around 2005 she was elected to American Academy of Arts and letters.

Week of May 6- Early 20th Century- Dada photocollage

Week of April 15-Early 20th Century- Between World Wars

                                                         ''The Art Critic Der Kunstkritiker''


Dada was an art movement that formed in Europe when World War I was happening. Many artist moved to Switzerland because it was a neutral country. Dada began to show his protest through artistic medium by creating non art since art in the society meant nothing. This art movement was a protest but it always was fun to see. Most of the art was sarcastic, colorful and silly. In addition this movement is responsible for influencing many trends in visual art. Their aim was to destroy traditional value in art and create new art to replace the old. Artist Raoul Hausmann named this piece '' The Art Critic Der Kunstkritiker'' around 1919 to 1920. Hausmann was a member of the Berlin Dada group. This image was an anonymous figure cut from a magazine. Behind the critic's neck there is a German banknote that suggest he is being controlled by capitalist forces. Lastly there are words in the background of a poem by Hausmann.

''The Cabinet Maker, 1994''

Jacob Lawrence was an African-American painter known for his portrayal of African-American life. His work was rooted in US history mainly focus on the struggle against slavery and racial oppression. Lawrence was the first black artist to achieve prominence in what was still a largely segregated art world. Lawrence shows poverty, poor health care, police harassment, and racial discrimination. There were many influences that contributed to the unique style of this young artist. Other influences were such leading American artists as Stuart Davis, whose cubist-influenced style bears some resemblance to Lawrence's work. 

Week of April 8- Late 18th and 19th Century Art- Romanticism- Post Impressionism

Impressionism is a style of painting developed around the nineteen century. By using bright colors to present the effect of light in an object. In other words this impressionism is a way of painting in which color and tone are light. Impressionism is often painted outdoors to capture sunlight and the color of the object. This is an impression sunrise by Claude Monet in 1872. The way colors are being express shows us that without the brighter orange or the gray sky there will be no sun. Impressionism captures the effect of light which could convey a change in weather or season. Artist captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they caught a peek of it.

Post Impressionism is the style of a wage range of different artistic styles that all share a common movement. This movement became a new way artist  painted. Post Impressionism influenced many groups during the 20th century. Many artist use their emotions in order to connect in a deeper level. It mainly focused on abstract form and patterns. This is a painting of a lady in the field by Camille Pissarro in 1889.

Week of April 1- Renaissance & Baroque

During the Baroque period, which ran from 1600 to about 1750. Most artists used Renaissance technique to move art to a more dramatic and emotion style. The Baroque period had various styles that shows great energy and dramatic use of light, scale and composition. Many of the characteristic  that Baroque style promoted by the Roman Catholic Church's response to the Protestant Reformation. This is a painting of ''The Conversion of Saint Paul'' By Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. This painting was made around 1600 to 1601 in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy. Caravaggio uses dramatic painting by using light and strong contrasts. This makes viewers feel the intensity of the painting.  The painting shows Paul in a Roman dress pushed to the ground, this makes viewers feel like we are right there. 

Lamentation of the Death of Christ is a High Middle Ages fresco painting by Italian painter Giotto di Bondone. This painting shows the body of Christ also Christ's supporters, and the Angels in heaven after he had been crucified. This was around C. 1305 Italians believed they were responsible for the rebirth of the glory of ancient Greece.  The Renaissance was a period of new and renewed understanding. New values and technology brought a new style in art around the fourteen century. Art of the Renaissance started to change in northern  and southern Europe. The reason this happened is because the people of the two region had different attitude and experience. Painter Giotto di Bondone showed a new beginning of humanist art. He took a step back from abstract by portraying feelings and physical nature. Giotto di Bondone brought light, space and a sense of realism to painting. In addition in Lamentation Giotto shoes a spiritual reality.