2 Prominent Black Artists by Saleena Livera

Kara Walker:

Kara Walker was born on the 26th November 1969 in Stockton, California and is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, and film-maker. Her best known pieces of work are her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. In her work, she often explores important themes such as race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity. She was inspired by her father who was also a painter. At the age of 27, she became the second youngest recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant. Her works expose the awful reality plantation slaves faced. She does this by using methods such as making cut-outs of the South’s landscape to surround the viewer and create a circular, claustrophobic environment. However, her artwork also shows the brutality that slaves face. For example, ‘The Battle of Atlanta’, portrays a violent rape scene. Her artwork is on display at several art and fine arts museums in the USA; such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her artwork shows the hierarchy of American society with white men at the top and coloured women at the bottom.

Alice Walker:

Alice Walker was born on February 9th 1944 in Eatoton, Georgia. She is an author and social activist. She is probably best known for her novel, The Colour Purple, which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1982.  This novel explored the struggles of a young, black woman; through racism and patriarchy. She has written several other novels; which are focused on the struggles of black women through racism, sexism and violence. She is also a prominent activist. She met Martin Luther King Jr. as a college student and he inspired her to return to the South and become a civil rights activist. She took part in the 1963 March on Washington and later volunteered to register black voters in Georgia and Mississippi. She also protested on March 9th 2003 (international women’s day), on the day before the Iraq War began. She was arrested at an anti-war rally that day with 26 others for crossing a police line. She coined the term ‘womanist’ to mean ‘a black feminist or a feminist of colour’.