In 1942, artist John Graham organized an exhibition in New York that was in many ways the precursor to Picasso and American Art. Just as the Walker’s show pairs works by important American artists with the Picasso pieces that inspired them, Graham’s juxtaposed paintings by New York artists of the day with those by their Parisian contemporaries. A few works by Picasso were shipped across the…

Kara Walker’s purposefully provocative and seductively graphic work is difficult. It confounds, and sometimes offends. In addressing the concerns of some viewers, I’ve tried to convey that part of our mission as a cultural institution is to represent many different value systems, to give space, alongside more familiar or palatable expressions, to the unfamiliar, the invisible, the unspeakable, and the…

Ellen Gallagher (American, b. 1965) is known for employing potent visual symbols to reveal sly musings on the history of racial identity in America. She gained attention in the 1990s with paintings that initially appeared abstract and minimal, with a subtle palette and geometry. The delicate grids were formed by sheets of penmanship exercises adhered to the canvas, onto which the artist rendered…

Senior registration technician Dave Bartley bristles, just a little, when he sees people ignoring the bold geometric patterns that illuminate the walls of Gallery 8 Café by Wolfgang Puck. And pity the hapless soul who, not realizing the mural is an artwork in the Walker collection, leans against the gold, red, and blue wall while Bartley’s in the room. It’s not that he’s overly sensitive to the…

Linoleum, masks, and punchlines: the everyday materials and themes in the work on view in Ordinary Culture: Heikes/Helms/McMillian live up to the exhibition’s title, but the interplay between elements in each work—and between works by other artists—makes this installation of new art by Jay Heikes, Adam Helms, and Rodney McMillian anything but common. In a four-way e-mail exchange, exhibition curator…

Like the work of a growing number of contemporary artists, Cameron Jamie’s art at times seems to overlap with the concerns and methodologies of visual anthropology. A number of his major projects, after all, have documented the rites, rituals, and artifacts of specific subcultures in Europe as well as in North America. In at least some of these works, Jamie appears to assume the role of an amateur…

The Walker has recently acquired videos by two remarkable young talents, Mircea Cantor (b. 1977) and Cao Fei (b. 1978). Hailing from Romania and Southern China and living and working in Paris and Beijing, respectively, both Cantor and Cao have become increasingly notable presences at many important art events and museums around the world, although they are still considered early-career artists. Their…

Sharon Lockhart is known for making formally rigorous films and still photographs in staged settings. Represented in the Walker collection by a multimedia work, photos, and multiples, the artist recently took a moment to answer some of life’s most—and possibly least—pressing questions. What’s the last (or favorite) book you read? Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. What is one of the most…

One of the most iconic artists of her generation, Kiki Smith makes work containing unflinching and often exquisite meditations on the body, myth, and spirituality that, as Walker director Kathy Halbreich says, “possess the power to bring one to a complete stop.” Smith exhibits great fluency with a wide variety of media, yet she has often gravitated toward humble materials such as paper, clay, and fabric…