Sporting Life and Bess (plate, facing page 94) from Porgy & Bess
Kara Walker
American, born 1969
2013
A lithograph plate from an illustrated edition of Porgy & Bess in which Kara Walker uses a smeared, silhouette-like image to unsettle and rework the opera’s stories about race and desire.
Two tall, shadowy figures—rendered like charcoal smudges with drips and ghostly edges—stand opposite the printed libretto so that the image’s blurred presence feels both intimate and accusatory.
Walker places printmaking and the book format in conversation with a canonical American opera to expose and rethink the legacy of racialized representation, opening a space for historical critique and new narratives.
Medium
One from an illustrated book with sixteen lithographs
Dimensions
composition: 9 15/16 × 8 9/16" (25.3 × 21.7 cm); page: 12 5/8 × 9 9/16" (32 × 24.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest (by exchange)
Accession
241.2016.15
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
