Negress

Kara Walker American
2017
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
This impression of a face was taken directly from a reproduction of Why Born Enslaved! Walker designed the work to be displayed on the ground in a corner like a discard, lit by a single ambient light. The plaster mold both traces and displaces Carpeaux’s bust, reinterpreting it as a hollow shell and haunting effigy. Its illumination dematerializes the sculptural surface, creating pools of light and shadow that form a ghostly presence. Like Walker’s famous paper-cut silhouettes, this work uses negative space to evoke the wounds of history. Speaking about her art’s relationship to the past, Walker has stated: "I’m not making work about reality; I’m making work about images. I’m making work about fictions that have been handed down to me."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Negress
  • Artist: Kara Walker (American, born Stockton, California, 1969)
  • Date: 2017
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Plaster
  • Dimensions: H. 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm), W. 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm), D. 5 in. (12.7 cm)

  • Classification: Sculpture-Plaster
  • Credit Line: Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts