Kara Walker drawing
covered, uncovered at Newark Public Library
Text
| Barry Carter for The
New Jersey Star-Ledger
Published
| January 20, 2013
NEWARK
— The painting that caused such a ruckus at the Newark Public Library is
uncovered again, viewable by all, and the controversy around it gone.
You
may remember a column last month about several staff members up in arms because
they didn’t think the art was appropriate. They made such a fuss that it was
covered up a day after being hung in the second-floor reference room.
The
huge
drawing was done by Kara Walker, a renowned African-American artist whose
themes deal with race, gender, sexuality and violence. This piece shows the
horrors of reconstruction, 20th-century Jim Crowism and hooded figures of the
Ku Klux Klan.
The
controversial part depicts a white man holding the head of a naked black woman
to his groin, her back to the viewer.
Library
director Wilma Grey didn’t think displaying the drawing was a problem, but she
covered it with fabric after people complained — so all could take a breath and
think this over. Walker wasn’t happy about doing it, neither was Scott London,
a longtime art collector who loaned the piece to the library.
“I
thought we were past that,’’ he said. “I was surprised.”
Since
then, there has been a powwow. The shroud is gone and everyone can see it now.
Kara Walker's drawing depicts the horrors of reconstruction, 20th-century Jim Crowism and the hooded figures of the Ku Klux Klan, but the part that has some Library workers upset is the depiction of oral sex on the right.
Kendell
Willis, an employee, said he had a better understanding of the library’s
position after the meeting with officials.
“They
said there are a lot of things in artwork we don’t want to talk about, and that
made absolute sense,’’ he said.
That’s
what they’ll do now. Grey and library trustees plan to invite Walker to talk
about the work, artistic freedom and the role of black artists in society.
“The
library should be a safe harbor for controversies of all types, and those
controversies can be dealt with in the context of what is known about art,
about literature, democracy and freedom,” said Clement A. Price, a library
trustee and Rutgers history professor. “There’s no better venue in Newark where
such a powerful and potential controversial drawing should be mounted.”
The
irony here is the Newark Public Library in the 1950s covered a giant mural that
was considered offensive. It showed male nudity in a painting by R.H. Ives
Gammell. The painting, “The Fountain of Knowledge,” stayed hidden for 35 years
until it was uncovered in the 1980s. It’s still there now, on the second floor.
Just
as that mural rubbed folks the wrong way, Price said, the portrayal of the
black American experience is a sensitive issue as well.
“Should
we be depicted sentimentally, romantically?” he said. “Should some of the
grotesque realities be depicted in art or movies?”
Walker,
a recipient of the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s
“genius” grant, used large black-paper silhouettes to get her point across when
she debuted in 1994. Her work, some of it set in the antebellum South, has
graphic racial stereotypes of atrocities African-Americans have suffered.
The
piece at the library, however, may not have received such notoriety if Newark
City Hall had space to hang it. London, a New York City resident, said an art
consultant he works with offered the drawing to the mayor’s office first. He
said the city wanted to display it, but officials told them they didn’t have
room.
Enter
the Newark Public Library, the next best place London felt was suited for such
a piece.
When
it was covered, he couldn’t believe it. But now that things have changed,
London said it’s the best outcome, especially if Walker comes to talk about her
work.
“Moreover,
libraries have a view to the future; their custodians recognize that ideas that
may be unpopular today may have influence tomorrow,” London said. “It is
reassuring that the Newark Public Library chose to maintain and uphold this
principle by unshrouding and continuing to showcase Ms. Walker’s drawing. It
was not the easy thing to do.”
If
you’re not doing anything, walk on over to the library. Leave a comment if you’d
like. There’s a sheet underneath the drawing for your thoughts.
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