Kara Walkers “Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart.” Walker utilizes silhouettes in black and white to create a complex political narrative based on historical fantasy.  The lack of color emphasizes the narrative being told without any distracting elements. This black and white color scheme creates a confrontational piece that plays off the viewer’s knowledge of racial stereotypes. In this piece, the shape of the background and characters are filled in with black.  The lack of dimension and the high contrast image causes the viewer to focus on the bold silhouettes.

In contemporary America, it is very easy for people in positions power and privilege to believe that race is no longer an issue.  Walker disputes that notion with her art work, specifically “Gone..” addresses the history and cultural context of Black people and the deep rooted effects of slavery. Walker uses silhouettes to display the stark nature of racism, which is conveyed in a fantasy like story through antebellum caricatures. However, the narrative she creates is far from childlike stories.  Instead, Walker utilizes negative stereotypical depictions of slaves to convey the anti blackness throughout history.  She does not shy from controversial topics such as blatant sexual imagery, violence, and racism.  Through this piece she does not aim to perpetuate these negative stereotypes but to reveal them to confront her viewers and remind them of the ugly yet prevalent history in America. Walker is a very polarizing artist surrounded by controversy due to her unflinching artwork.  Many art critics believe that her work is exploitative and opportunistic instead of a stark reminder of the oppressive systems of power constructed in the past that is still perpetuated today.

Created in 1994, Gone An Historical Romance of Civil War As it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of Young Negress and Her Heart was a reference to the novel by Margaret Mitchell “Gone With the Wind” an American literature classic that conveys racism and power structures within the time period.  Walker had very strong preconceptions of this oppressive piece of literature which depicted slaves as less than human. As a child Walker moved to the south and experienced microaggressions, and both covert/blatant racism which had inspired her as an artist to delve into the social constructs of whiteness and blackness and how it contributes to a cycle of power. (Cameron, 1997, pg. 13). Walker addresses this issue head on with symbols that are thought provoking, controversial and extremely expressive.  She conveys narratives of ironic comedy using stereotypical caricatures of Black women, slave masters, uncensored sex and violence. juxtaposition between the literal black and white nature of silhouettes and the complex political narratives she creates that reflects real life and past experiences of America.

Annotated Bibliography

Cameron, Dan. “Kara Walker: Rubbing History the Wrong Way.” On Paper 2, no. 1 (1997): 10-14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24554660.

Farrington, Lisa E. Woman’s Art Journal 25, no. 1 (2004): 59-61. doi:10.2307/3566506.

Wall, David. “Transgression, Excess, and the Violence of Looking in the Art of Kara Walker.” Oxford Art Journal 33, no. 3 (2010): 279-99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40983288.