The Final Solution

Posted on October 15, 2007
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Zerlina Chiu

With a style like Kara Walker’s, it is hard not to draw controversy. Any artist has his fair share of critics, but when one chooses to explore issues like race and gender with art, the response is intense. With so multifaceted and sensitive a subject, it ceases to be just about technique or the originality of the work. It becomes not so much about the individual brushstrokes, or the distance of the canvas from the floor, or the way the lighting casts certain corners into obscurity as it is about what the artist is trying to convey. The focus shifts from the medium to the actual message, and perhaps when one is dealing with something as delicate as race, it is best not to hide meanings in esoteric swirls or the subtle blending of colors, but rather to say what needs to be said out in the open. That is exactly what Kara Walker’s art does. Her work is literally black and white, textureless paper cutouts adhered to immaculate walls. It is stark and bold, and one does not need to tilt one’s head just so, or to stand a particular distance away for the image to be clear.
Of course, art will always ruffle some feathers. Kara Walker has received heavy criticism from already established African American artists, who claim that she is perpetuating negative stereotypes in her work. In response, Walker produced sixty-six watercolor drawings, collectively known as “Do You Like Crème in Your Coffee and Chocolate in Your Milk?” These watercolors are often described as a diary of sorts, which reflects the openness of Walker and her art. They are a series of leaflet-sized paintings and notes that serve as her counter-argument against her critics. The most powerful one was not an image, but rather a plain page with a few choice words – a textual counterpart, perhaps, of her seemingly simplistic yet striking murals. Walker writes:

The final solution:
How to unfairly
stereotype White People

for balance.

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