Kara Walker, A Subtlety (2014) all images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Since her debut at The Drawing Center in 1994, Kara Walker has been one of the most prolific American artists of African descent, delivering an ambitious oeuvre on the politics of race, gender and identity. As with contemporaries such as Lorna Simpson and Mickalene Thomas, who address similar subject matter, the artist has continuously mined history to reveal the untold micro-histories of those that are neglected and enslaved, reflecting on the representation of Black history in the U.S. and abroad. Her infamous cut-paper silhouettes narrating the stories of anguish and abuse in African-American history have earned the California-born, New York based artist a singular position in the contemporary art dialogue.

Kara Walker, A Subtlety (2014) (more…)

Filmmaker and Video Artist Steve McQueen is profiled in The Guardian this week, talking about his inspirations, his childhood dyslexia, and his personal reflections on the history of slavery.  “All I remember feeling was a real sense of shame and embarrassment about it,” he says. “We can deal with the second world war and the Holocaust and so forth and what not, but this side of history, maybe because it was so hideous, people just do not want to see. People do not want to engage.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles the upcoming release of Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, and the recent panel discussion the filmmaker and artist gave with writer Nelson George and fellow artist Kara Walker, discussing the influences for the film, and its place as a historical perspective on slavery.  “There’s a uniquely American exuberance for violence or an exuberance for getting ahead in the world and making a name for themselves. I’m talking about the sort of plantation class that fought for the entrenchment of the slave system,” Walker notes.  “That’s not something that can be overlooked when you think about the mythology of what it means to be an American, that one can become a self-made man if one is white and male and able.” (more…)

Filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen has taken top awards at the Toronto International Film Festival for his newest work, 12 Years a Slave.  Announced this week as the People’s Choice Award-winner, his film documents the life of Solomon Northrup, a black American kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. (more…)