Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time [Hardcover]

Robert F. Reid-Pharr (Author), Kara Walker (Author), Annette Dixon (Editor), Thelma Golden (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1891024507 | ISBN-13: 978-1891024504 | Publication Date: October 15, 2002

Arguably the most controversial young African-American artist working today, Kara Walker creates vivid and shocking evocations, rooted in stereotypes, of an antebellum world that comments on the system of slavery and its continuing legacy in the American consciousness. In her choice of black cut-paper silhouettes, Walker takes a medium that was extremely fashionable in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as part of the neoclassical revival, when the silhouetted images on ancient Greek and Roman vases were emulated on such goods as Wedgwood ware. The silhouette was a parlor art practiced by genteel ladies and gentlemen, who created portraits, landscapes, and decorative motifs. There were also traveling silhouettists who took their craft around the country. The 18th- and 19th-century silhouette was also associated with the pseudo-science of physiognomy, which held that one could analyze psychological and racial types by studying profiles. Adopting the antiquated medium of the silhouette, Walker has turned it into a powerful force to evoke the complexities of the system of slavery, exploring themes of exploitation, accommodation, and complicity on the part of both the powerful and the oppressed. Pictures From Another Time is the first major publication on the work of this extraordinary artist. It includes nearly 70 examples of her work, including her silhouettes, prints, drawings, projected installations, and watercolors. Texts include an interview with the artist by curator Thelma Golden, Deputy Director of Programs at The Studio Museum in Harlem; and essays by literary critic Robert Reid-Pharr, Professor of English at the City University of New York and Annette Dixon, Curator of Western Art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1967 in Stockton, California, Kara Walker burst upon the international scene in 1995. Since then, her work has enjoyed several landmark showings, including solo exhibitions at the Renaissance Society in Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The recipient of the coveted MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in 1997, Walker is the United States representative to the São Paulo Bienal in 2002.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 100 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Museum of Art (October 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024507
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024504
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 10.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pictures From Another Time, February 25, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time (Hardcover)

Upon its publication, this was the most complete volume on Kara Walker that I had come across. The essays are well written and informative, and delve deeper into various aspects of the artist's work than had previous reviews which often focus solely on the racial controversy of Walker's work. The interview with Thelma Golden provides some insight into possible future directions that Walker contemplates with her work. The images and color plates included in the book are of high quality and are representative of much of Walker's work, not only her installation at the University of Michigan.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not an Art critic or Artist, & I never buy art books..., November 10, 2003

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higa (Ku'u home o Honolulu) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time (Hardcover)

I'm just a regular Joe who doesn't even know that much about art (I never even had an undergraduate class in art appreciation or art history). I first saw Kara Walker's art on a PBS special and was so moved by her work and her methods, I purchased this book. The images in this book are more graphic, more arresting, and more provoking than the ones shown on TV. I opened this book as soon as I received it from Amazon, yet, I had to keep looking away at times because some of the compositions are so heartbreaking. As a minority myself, I don't think I suffer too much from white guilt about racial and historical prejudice, yet just the intensity of emotion and presentation of her juxtapositions are painful and exhilirating. "Genius" is a word I approach with skepticism because of it's over use these days (c'mon can Eminem REALLY be a genius?) but very often as I turned the pages in this collection and was stopped by images that begged contemplation, the word genius occurred to me over and over again.

I took off one star for the essays, NOT for Kara Walker's art. I doubt it, but maybe I will get around to reading the essays. They intrude upon the presentation of the work, at times, which is slightly annoying. I guess they help you put the artist's work into historical, aesthetic context blah, blah, blah. I'm sure the more educated appreciate the inclusions of the essays, but I think her works speaks loads by itself. Which, ideally, is how art should affect us (us="the great unwashed masses without any special knowledge"), isn't it?

2.0 out of 5 stars Overcharged!, February 11, 2010

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Nick-urban reader (Baltimore MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time (Hardcover)

When I received this book I found that the seller was charging almost 3 times the retail price, for a recent book that was not a special edition. I consider this price gouging.