How much does Kara Elizabeth Walker art cost
Kara Elizabeth Walker (b. Nov 26, 1969, Stockton, CA; raised mostly in Atlanta, GA) is an American contemporary artist and academic, renowned for her potent visual language. She received her BFA from Atlanta College of Art (1991) and MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (1994) . A recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 1997 at age 28, she’s one of the youngest fellows . Since 2015, she holds the Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at Rutgers University .
Walker is widely regarded as one of the most prominent and influential African-American artists of the contemporary art world.
What is she known for?
1. Signature silhouettes
Her dramatic, large-scale black paper cut-outs, set against white walls, depict grotesque, often disturbing scenes of antebellum history, exploring race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity . Walker transforms the genteel 19th-century silhouette medium into provocative tableaux (e.g., Gone, Darkytown Rebellion) .
2. Immersive installations
She expands silhouette work into animated projections, shadow puppetry (Mistress Demanded Swift…), film, and sound .
3. Public sculptures
Her monumental sculptures include:
A Subtlety (2014): A 35-ft sugar-sphinx installation in the Domino Sugar Factory with attendants made of sugar/molasses, commenting on labor, race, and industrial remains .
Fons Americanus (2019): A 13m tall fountain at Tate Modern made of cork, wood, metal, and jesmonite, symbolizing the trans-Atlantic slave trade and empire .
How does Walker create her art?
Research & Conceptualization
In-depth historical and literary research, plantation narratives, minstrel shows, racist tracts, forms the backbone .Silhouette cutting
She draws and cuts water-black paper into precise shapes to form panels that, when installed in sequence, build dark storytelling panoramas .Installation & Projection
Friezes pasted onto gallery walls or used with projectors add color, animation, and viewers’ shadows to implicate them in historical trauma .Mixed media & scale
She incorporates watercolor, gouache, drawing, film, sculpture, and large-scale installations woven with architecture .
What art style is she associated with?
Contemporary, conceptual art
Silhouette-based narrative frieze and panorama
Figurative, historical critique
Installation art and public monumental sculpture
Her work recontextualizes Victorian silhouettes, shadow puppetry, and early animation to wrestle with systemic racism and collective memory .
Materials used
Black papercuts (mounted directly on walls or canvases)
Colored gels & projectors, often referencing animation techniques
Watercolor, gouache, ink, collage
Sculptural materials: sugar, polystyrene, molasses, cork, wood, jesmonite, metal
Famous artworks
Gone, An Historical Romance… (1994): Early mural silhouette, graphic sexual/violent content
Darkytown Rebellion (2000): Animated colored silhouettes in projection
A Subtlety (2014): 35-ft sugar sphinx & sugar attendants installation
Fons Americanus (2019): Monumental fountain at Tate Modern
They Waz Nice White Folks… (2001): Collaged silhouettes with racial/gender violence
How many artworks does she have?
Quantifying her total works is complex due to varied media and site-specific installations. However:
MutualArt reports 466 artworks sold at auction, spanning prints, collages, books, and sculptures .
Her 2007 retrospective featured over 200 works.
The Frist Art Museum exhibition included 80+ works .
The Whitney, Hammer, Guggenheim, Tate, and many other institutions hold extensive archives.
So her total body of work likely exceeds several hundred unique pieces, across hundreds of prints, large installations, and ephemeral exhibitions.
How much does Kara Elizabeth Walker art cost?
Prices vary widely by medium, size, and type:
Small collages/prints: $20,000–$30,000
Large silhouettes/collages: $120,000+ for big works; Battle of Atlanta sold for ~$330k in 2005
Auction records:
~$502k for a 3m silhouette work in 2019
$529,200 for Negress Notes at Sotheby’s in 2022
In recent years, her smaller prints have averaged about $6,800 . Collector demand remains strong, with every work offered selling by 2008 Artprice.
Summary table
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is she known for? | Dark, large-scale cut-paper silhouettes depicting antebellum America and racial power dynamics. |
| Art style? | Conceptual contemporary art, installations, silhouettes, public sculpture rooted in historical critique. |
| How does she make art? | Through research, papercutting, projections, drawings, sculptural installations, and multimedia practices. |
| Materials used? | Black paper, colored gels, watercolor, gouache, sugar, molasses, wood, jesmonite, cork, metal. |
| Famous works? | Gone, Darkytown Rebellion, A Subtlety, Fons Americanus, They Waz Nice…. |
| Number of works? | Several hundred; 466+ at auction; retrospective exhibitions of 200+ works. |
| Cost? | Small works: $20k–$30k; large: $120k+; auction record ~ $529k; prints avg ~$6.8k. |
Why does Walker’s work matter?
Cultural dialog: Her silhouettes force reckoning with racism, sexuality, nostalgia, and power.
Innovative form: Reinvents a quaint medium to confront historical brutality and viewer complicity .
Public engagement: Her installations (especially sugar and fountain works) invite mass dialogue, blending art, history, politics, and memory.
Kara Walker’s power as an artist comes from her ability to stir discomfort through beauty, elegant black silhouettes and grand sugar sphinxes that mask harrowing truths. Her multimodal, research-based works span centuries and expose persistent inequalities, challenging viewers to not just avert their gaze (“look away”), but to stand in the shadow of history.
If you’re interested in seeing her work in person or investing, many major institutions hold her pieces, but note that prices are high and competitive. Let me know if you’d like direct links to auction catalogs or current galleries showing her work! image/theartstory.org
