Cotton

1997

Cotton, 1997. Kara Walker (American, b. 1969), published by Landfall Press. Etching and aquatint with spitbite, printed chine collé, on white wove paper; platemark: 30 x 22.5 cm (11 13/16 x 8 7/8 in.); sheet: 46.3 x 37.4 cm (18 1/4 x 14 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2018.210 Since the early 1990s, Kara Walker has explored issues of race, gender, and power throughout American history—especially the antebellum South. This print is one of many works in which she referenced silhouettes, a traditional art form during the 19th century. With violence that contrasts the medium’s gentility, a woman falls into a massive basket of cotton bolls, commenting on the violence inflicted upon African slaves.