Kara Walker: Brent Sikkema.(New York)(exhibition Drawing investigates the properties of drawing versus cutout)

One does not "enjoy" a Kara Walker show, and this is odd because she is an enchantingly skillful artist. She slogs through a swamp of race, history, trauma, and desire, which is hard enough, then pirouettes along a tightrope between grotesque stereotype and idiosyncrasy, which is even trickier.

To engage such material--to embarrass and even offend audiences and to ensnare the eager critic m contradiction and multiple meaning--adds up to an ambitious enterprise. But Walker has for almost a decade met the challenge with the unwavering ludic rage characteristic of great social ...

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