Kara Elizabeth Walker, a renowned and highly respected Black American artist, has produced some of the most important contemporary works of art in recent years. Walker is a capable and multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes many mediums, such as painting, printmaking, installation art, drawing, sculpture, and filmmaking.
Kara Walker was born in 1969 to an academic family in California. As early as age three, young Kara Walker was inspired by her father, Larry Walker, who was both a painter and professor.
Walker enrolled in the Atlanta College of Art. Here, she developed a deeper aptitude for painting and printmaking. After graduating with her BFA, Walker attended RISD to pursue an MFA.
Walker’s first installation was a critical success and led to her being represented early on in her career by a major gallery, Wooster Gardens (now Sikkema Jenkins & Co.).
Walker enrolled in the Atlanta College of Art. Here, she developed a deeper aptitude for painting and printmaking. After graduating with her BFA, Walker attended RISD to pursue an MFA.
Despite Walker’s continued recognition and acclaim, her work was often criticized for its use of racial stereotypes. Betye Saar, an acclaimed political African-American artist, was one of Walker’s most vocal critics.
Kara Walker says Andy Warhol’s art influenced her as a child. Other influences include Robert Colescott, a painter known for his satirical use, and Adrian Piper, a conceptual artist and philosopher.
By depicting scenes from history and literature, she subverts Western history painting and makes it relevant to contemporary society. Walker understands the power of titles to inform her work. She uses long grandiose literary titles to draw attention to her appropriation of this tradition in historical Western painting and the significance of it in her work.