Customer Reviews

Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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?

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.