The newest work of Kara Walker pulls no punches, and elegantly.  I stepped into her solo show at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. gallery intrigued by the graphic strength and sophistication of her papercuts.  Genre scenes, at first glance...Quaint, I mused-- romantic.  And then I strolled past a few more pictures and realized that the figures were not characters so much as caricatures.  Silhouettes of distinctively black faces.  They were portraits of violence. Disturbed, I stepped closer and began to read titles off the wall such as:  Bureau of Refugees: Mulatto hung by a grapevine near the road side between Tuscaloosa & Greensboro.  As it turned out, each work was inspired by a line from a Reconstruction-era document entitled the Freedmen’s Bureau, which detailed a plethora of racist atrocities perpetrated against recently freed blacks.

    To recommend this show on the basis of aesthetic appeal would be to miss the point entirely.  Indeed it is difficult not to admire Walker’s superlative eye for line and composition, however the strength of the exhibition lies in the absolute transcendence of such formal concerns.  How often does a gallery visit provoke true outrage at a social reality entirely removed from the hermetic “debates” of the Art World?  Make this your last stop in Chelsea, as it will be difficult to take other exhibitions very seriously in its wake.

- Sophia Powers

(*Images, from top to bottom:  Kara Walker, Kara Walker: New Work, October 20 - November 21, 2007; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Freedom Fighters for the Society of Forgotten Knowledge, Northern Domestic Scene, 2005, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, 120 x 480 in, Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.   Kara Walker, Kara Walker: New Work, October 20 - November 21, 2007; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Hysteria! Savagery! Passions! (DETAIL), 2006,  Gouache and paper collage on panels, 1 of 11 works, Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.)