id:			313095
accession number:	2018.210
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.210
updated:		2022-09-10 12:04:00.145000

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

title:				Cotton
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1997
creation date earliest:		1997
creation date latest:		1997
current location:		
creditline:			Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	America, 20th century
technique:	etching and aquatint with spitbite, printed chine collé, on white wove paper
department:	Prints
collection:	PR - Etching
type:		Print
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Kara Walker (American, b. 1969)  - artist

* Landfall Press  - publisher

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measurements: 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.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	6/35

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	In graphite in lower left on recto: “6/35”
	translation:	
	remark:		

	inscription:	In graphite in lower right on recto: “KW97 (initialed)”
	translation:	
	remark:		

	inscription:	Stamped in ink in lower left on verso: “COPYRIGHT 1997/LANDFALL PRESS INC./329 W. 18th STREET/SUITE 601/CHICAGO, IL 60616”
	translation:	
	remark:		

	inscription:	In graphite in lower left on verso: “KW-96-05 A”
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions
	opening date:   2022-01-16T05:00:00
	<i>Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-June 19, 2022).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Charles M. Young Fine Prints, Portland, CT
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: September 4, 2018
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 


digital description: 
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.

wall description: 
Since the early 1990s, Kara Walker has referenced silhouettes, a popular form of portraiture in the American South during the 1800s, in various printmaking techniques. Contrasting such carefully composed likenesses, this work portrays a woman tumbling into a massive basket of cotton bolls. Walker chose materials for this print that further suggest the violence inflicted on enslaved Africans, painting directly on a printing plate with corrosive acid and allowing unintended scratches in its surface to remain visible. This combination of imagery and process has allowed her to explore issues of race, gender, and power throughout US history.
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