Lot 34 email save

KARA WALKER, The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins, 19

Sign In to see what this sold for

The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins, 1994 -1995
Paper cut-out mounted to paper. 72 1/4 x 52 1/4 in. (183.5 x 132.7 cm).

PROVENANCE Brent Sikkema, New York
EXHIBITED Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Habit Forming: Contemporary Art from Portland Collections, April 23 - May 30, 2007 ; Portland, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, Working History, African American Objects, January 22 - March 2, 2008
LITERATURE B. Libby, "A Look Inside the Collecting Trove," The Oregonian, April 29, 2007 (Illustrated); J. Bromer, "Habit Forming at PNCA," PortlandArt.net (online content), May 14, 2007 (illustrated); C. Raymond, "You Need Art," Portland Monthly, March 2008 (illustrated)

Internationally acclaimed artist Kara Walker revived the traditionally female craft form of silhouette cutting creating shadow dramas which with nuance and dark humor deal with complex and uncomfortable issues of race, taboo, pride, decency, power and identity. Walker was drawn to the use of the silhouette for its reductive quality—a silhouette reduces a rendering to two dimensions just as a racial stereotype is a reduction of an actual human being. Another aspect that appealed to her was that the silhouettes render everyone the color black. The silhouette also has a connotation of gentility to it, which serves to point out the historical hypocrisy of this country's legacy of race relations, and adds to the irony in her powerful imagery.   "Well, a lot of the time every image is one lie or bad joke—on the surface— rather than an immediate truth. I guess the "truth" of an image or situation within a whole piece, occurs when the viewer is enticed to fill in the blank spaces. She is faced with the discomfort of realizing just how many bizarre and sometimes violent fantasies already occupy her mind, " (Kara Walker in H. Olbrist, Kara Walker: Safety Curtain 1, Vienna, 2002, p. 12).

View Phillips de Pury & Company next auction.

Similar lots up for auction