Artist Talk with Kara Walker

The artist Kara Walker in conversation with the exhibition curator Anita Haldemann in the context of the exhibition “Kara Walker. A Black Hole Is Everything a Star Longs to Be”.
Throwing open the doors to her personal archive that she has closely guarded for the past twentyeight years, Kara Walker (b. 1969) presents more than 600 drawings from her studio. The Kunstmuseum Basel displays these treasures together with brand-new works by the world-famous American artist in her first extensive solo exhibition in Switzerland.
Showing little patience for political correctness, the 52-year-old American zooms in on today’s hot-button issues: racism, violence, gender, and sexuality. Walker rose to prominence with expansive silhouettes and monumental sculptures. Most recently, her enormous fountain Fons Americanus at the Tate Modern, London, made headlines.
Walker’s first major solo exhibition in Switzerland turns the spotlight on her drawings: the creative matrix of her oeuvre. It features more than six hundred works from the past three decades that the artist has never shared with the public. The spectrum ranges from sketches, studies, collages, and diary-like notes to monumental drawings. The show offers unprecedented insight into Walker’s approach, thinking, and prolific imagination.
June 5 - September 26, 2021
Further information:
kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/exhibi...
#kunstmuseumbasel
#karawalker

[@debraearling6095]

Love her sense of humor and her whimsical presentness. She animates that dull room.

[@clutch202]

a that dull interviewer.

[@markkinkle7038]

She is an artist with strong sense of voice. She understands her subject themes - race, class, geography - and therefore often people listen, not talk; she is an authority.

[@thaxtonwaters8561]

Love Kara Walker's work. Awesome talk, makes me feel less anxious about my unfinished pieces and all of my extras in my studio.

[@elizabethadams4558]

Incredible work. I recently discovered Kara Walker in bust magazine. I wish I had known about her when I taught women studies. She's an amazing speaker and theorist as well as artist. As an academic, I caution her against "the reason is because" and "different than." Everybody's a critic! Thanks, Kara, for being in the world.

[@RianPhin]

thank you for sharing this moment online

[@entsieopoku3377]

Kara walker gives me the morale in my art career she is my role model I wanna be like her in future

[@ohoraherecaptain]

WoW. Very little interviewing by way of prompting. More of a monologue, and all the better for it. Walker is a switched on contemporary artist in more ways than one. ☘

[@ajbwell]

Love this ❤

[@jdakut1]

She's incredible ❤

[@CloudsRainmaker1111]

Brilliant! ❤

[@violethillhour]

she's ethereal 😍

[@devhen077]

can we please denormalize the unbearably long monotone introductions at the beginning of every artist talk? i fear of falling asleep before the artist even gets to speak

[@eeeeeeeera2527]

hahaha 01:25 glance tho!

[@gmock9427]

I’m very much intrigued by the portrait of the black person holding a head of a white person. I feel like it’s a message to Trump (former US president). It looks to me, as though the artist is holding him responsible in the subject of Black Lives Matter. A subject he was very clear he didn’t care about. Whatever the idea behind the painting was, it’s a very striking pairing. Beautifully executed.

[@rafcusters2793]

31 minutes into the conversation and Anita Haldeman has still not touched on the terror of racism and colonialism, typical ?

[@AIalgorithmsandart]

Because she’s not just interested in subject-matter but also (well yes, mainly) in drawing, an interest Kara seems to share, too. Right? But then the rest of the conversation is all about the themes. Right?

[@leststoner]

Boring

[@blue_hype4161]

Lol