There's no diploma in the world that declares you as an artist—it's not like becoming a doctor. You can declare yourself an artist and then figure out how to be an artist.
Kara WalkerRead
I am performing this role of the artist and this role of the 'negress' coming into a white-box institution. It's kind of a self-appointed role: the self-designated negress.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Kara Walker discusses the complexities of her identity as an artist and a Black woman in predominantly white spaces.
In this quote, Kara Walker reflects on her dual identity as both an artist and a 'negress', a term that evokes historical and racial contexts. She emphasizes the challenges and nuances of navigating a 'white-box institution', which symbolizes the traditional art world, while also claiming her self-designated role. Walker suggests that artistic expression is intertwined with her racial identity, and that she consciously embraces this complexity as part of her creative practice.
Themes
ArtistIdentityRaceArt WorldSelf-Designation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about diversity in the art community, this quote can serve to highlight the unique perspectives of underrepresented artists.
More from Kara Walker
All quotes →I didn’t want a completely passive viewer. Art means too much to me. To be able to articulate something visually is really an important thing. I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful
Kara WalkerRead
Sugar crystallizes something in our American Soul. It is emblematic of all Industrial Processes. And of the idea of becoming white. White Being equated with pure and ‘true’ it takes a lot of energy to turn brown things into white things. A lot of pressure.
Kara WalkerRead
I was making big paintings with mythological themes. When I started painting black figures, the white professors were relieved, and the black students were like, 'She's on our side.' These are the kinds of issues that a white male artist just doesn't have to deal with.
Kara WalkerRead
It feels like a game, this work I do. It is totally heartfelt, and I love the sticky terrain, the straight-up cartoons, how the irrepressible and icky rise to the surface. But I am not just trying to call forth bugaboos and demons for the sake of it, for fun.
Kara WalkerRead
Once you open up the Pandora's box of race and gender... you're never done.
Kara WalkerRead
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