Kara Walker, one of the youngest artists ever to receive the MacArthur "genius" grant, has gotten in plenty of hot water for the uncompromising use of perversion, scatology, and violence in her signature works. So it was no surprise that Reggie Prim, community programs manager at the Walker Art Center, figured there would be some work to do in the community before their Kara Walker retrospective went public on February 17.
Reggie told us, "My first reaction was, like, whoa!" when he saw the work about a year ago. That's when he set about to take the pulse of the community and get a sense of how Kara's work would be received in the notoriously liberal-yet-anal city of Minneapolis. Reggie and his cohorts gathered a couple dozen-community leaders--mostly Black--from a wide spectrum of arenas: artists, business people, media representatives, academics, historians, activists... and asked them what they thought.
There were some surprises.
Although it was an older generation of artists who first reacted against Kara back in the day (remember the Betye Saar flap?), Reggie found that the older generations in this group tended to show more tolerance and interest in the work, while younger generations flipped it the bird. Six hours worth of discussion later, the group proposed a raft of recommendations, many of which have been incorporated into the retrospective.
For example, tour guides and docents have been given extensive training on issues of representation, the history of the Walker, even the racial makeup of the Walker's board. Also, the work has been contextualized in a more robust way than usual, including a video interview of the artist that visitors encounter before seeing the work and accompanying works by other artists working in similar veins. Plus there are the usual lectures, discussions, and educational resources the Walker is so good at. We're hoping the show at least gets some discussion going in the broader community as it blows a hole in the status quo. After all, that's what art is supposed to do.
Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love opened February 17 and closes May 13.
