false

In this new episode of ‘Meet the artists’, she discusses her extraordinary cache of works on paper on show at Kunstmuseum Basel

Kara Walker unveils never-before-seen drawings grappling with race, gender, and violence 

<p></p>
<p>Melden Sie sich an oder richten Sie ein Benutzer*innen-Konto ein.&nbsp;So können Sie Art Basel Stories abonnieren und direkt in Ihren Posteingang bekommen.</p>
<p></p>

<p>Kara Walker has shown her silhouetted depictions of plantation life in most of the world’s leading institutions. Her monumental sculptures have made the headlines from New York to London. Now, Kunstmuseum Basel is revealing a lesser-known aspect of Walker’s prolific creative output: her drawings. ‘Kara Walker: A Black Hole Is Everything a Star Longs to Be’ gathers over 600 drawings executed over the last twenty-eight years. Some are sketches for existing projects; others, just ideas jotted down. Others, still, are elaborate compositions, often featuring Barack Obama as an embattled hero – or a saint. Issues of race, gender, violence, and the monstrous archetypes black women have been reduced to, return again and again. Almost none of these pieces have ever been exhibited before.‘These drawings represent for me this attempt to go back in time,’ Walker says, ‘in the hope of asking others to help me.’Shot in her New York studio and at Kunstmuseum Basel, this exceptional episode of ‘Meet the artists sheds light on one of the most intimate facets of the artists oeuvre.</p><p>‘Kara Walker: A Black Hole is Everything a Star Longs to Be,’ June 5 - September 26, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/exhibitions/2021/kara-walker" target="_blank">Kunstmuseum Basel</a>, Neubau. </p><p>Kara Walker is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1271/Sikkema-Jenkins-Co">Sikkema Jenkins &amp; Co.</a> (New York City) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/search?q=Spr%C3%BCth%20Magers" target="_blank">Sprüth Magers</a> (Berlin, London, Los Angeles).</p>

title_style_3

<section><div><div><div><div><div><div><article><p>The London-based multimedia artist revels in the dissolution of binaries and reveals a new name</p></article></div> </div></div></div></div></div></section>

Stories

Victoria Sin: 'I have had to unlearn so many narratives'

The legendary artist and philosopher unlocks his studio and garden sanctuary

Lee Ufan: ‘When the artwork feels like a living thing, that's when I let it go’

The acclaimed artist on Jet magazine, being a painter, and the beauty queens who inspired her




Mickalene Thomas: ‘My gaze is the gaze of a black woman unapologetically loving other black women’

In this new episode of ‘Meet the artists’, she discusses her extraordinary cache of works on paper on show at Kunstmuseum Basel  

Welcome,

Kara Walker unveils never-before-seen drawings grappling with race, gender, and violence

Discover more related content below: