id: 161331 accession number: 1999.93.b share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.93.b updated: 2023-09-22 11:12:34.129000 The Means to an End...A Shadow Drama in Five Acts: The Hunt, 1995. Kara Walker (American, b. 1969), Landfall Press. Etching and aquatint; sheet: 88.8 x 60 cm (34 15/16 x 23 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1999.93.b © Kara Walker title: The Means to an End...A Shadow Drama in Five Acts: The Hunt title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1995 creation date earliest: 1995 creation date latest: 1995 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: © Kara Walker --- culture: America, 20th century technique: etching and aquatint department: Prints collection: PR - Etching type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Kara Walker (American, b. 1969) - artist * Landfall Press - published by --- measurements: Sheet: 88.8 x 60 cm (34 15/16 x 23 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: 20 support materials: description: Somerset Satin wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: titled and initialed in graphite along upper edge translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper opening date: 2023-11-19T05:00:00 New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 19, 2023-April 14, 2024). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 229): May 5, 2009 - September 11, 2009. * The Cleveland Museum of Art (1/26/2014 - 5/18/2014); "Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings" --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: The Means to an End is a panorama that reads like chapter headings in a historical romance novel: "The Beginning," "The Hunt," "The Chase," "The Plunge," and "The End." The characters are antebellum stereotypes-slave and master or mistress, adult and child-each depicted in the style of 19th-century silhouettes. These generalized black shadows allow Walker to distance the explicit aggression portrayed in the scene and to equalize the actors, underscoring the notion that the weak accept the strong with benign passivity. As an African American artist, Walker has been criticized for her imagery, but she explains, "Illicit sex and violence are suggested as a means by which freedom was attained . . . [A] lot of it comes from the perspective of the self-made slave/mistress. It's history three times removed from me." --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES