Kara Walker Gone Analysis

Kara Walker is an African American contemporary artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. Walker is most known for her tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. One of her most famous art works is Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart. This romance that the title speaks of is representing a love triangle between the man’s wife and mistress. The romantic war that is occurring is expressed through every character in this art piece. Kara Walker uses her artistic ability to portray that although a black slave’s life is despised and under-appreciated by many, the black slave plays a huge role in the life of a slave master and the …show more content…
The lady in the elegant dress is portrayed to be the man’s wife and based on her looks like the beautiful puffy dress, the pretty hairstyle and shoes one would assume that she is white. Taking a look at the couple, one can tell how their “love” is there. Below the woman’s dress her feet are propped, basically standing on her tippy toes. This action might come as a careless act because she 's trying to kiss her loved one, but I also see her trying to reach his status. Women back then didn’t have a voice and had to comply with their husband’s commands. Moreover to the right, there is another lady that seems like she’s sitting on a boat. Her race is evidently portrayed to be black because of the hairstyle. The black woman has a say in the love triangle because at one point she’s in the wife’s shoes. This is where the other two legs that the wife has comes into play. The black woman has the opportunity to be in the wife’s shoes because she is the mistress. There is a relationship between a mistress and man that only involves sexual attraction. The war that is taking place is a love triangle, and affects both of the women. The white lady herself is going through a war because she knows that she will never be as high as her husband and not appreciated. She is also going through a conflict because she knows that her husband has a mistress and knowing that a negro can …show more content…
The slave master would commonly have affairs with their slave women, and while doing so, they’d have a loving wife and a child. The slave master’s wife and the slave are different by race and hierarchy, but the slave has the upperhand when it comes to the attraction of the slave master. The black slave women often have curvaceous bodies, with big lips and wide hips that are to the slave master’s liking. This can explain why the slave master’s beautiful wife could care less about the slave woman but needs her help in order to keep her husband’s attention, hence why the wife has four legs, two belonging to the slave. The war will always continue,but not a bloody and barbaric war, but a war of