Freedom: A Fable

Artist Kara Elizabeth Walker (American, born 1969)

Publisher Marketing Techniques, Inc., Carlsbad, CA, 1997 (Peter Norton)

Printer laser cutting: Lasercraft, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA print: Typecraft, Inc., Pasadena type design: Timothy Silverlake, Valencia, CA

Designer Kevin Willis and Brian Wilson, type designers (American)

Designer David Eisen (American)

Date1997

Dimensionsbox: 12 7/16 x 11 1/2 x 1 15/16 in. (316 x 292 x 49mm)
book: 9 7/16 x 8 3/8 x 7/8 in. (239 x 213 x 23mm)
page: 9 x 7 7/8 in. (228 x 200mm)
card: 5 x 7 in. (127 x 178mm)

MediumOriginal paper designs: laser-cut black paper silhouettes, folded as pop-up elements Text: letterpress in black and white (typefaces: Ransom Group Antique, Attic Antique) Paper: white wove Classic Crest Cover; black wove Curtis Tuscan Antique Cover

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of David W. Steadman in honor of the Peter Norton Family

Object number

2000.33

Not on View

Label TextFreedom: A Fable is the first work by Kara Walker in book format. It was inspired by literary memoirs of former slaves or novels like Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Similar to how she creates her large-scale murals, Walker here employs black paper silhouettes to narrate the history of American slavery in an ironic and provocative manner. Her paper cut-outs recall popular 19th-century portrait silhouettes, while at the same time subverting their typical function. In Walker’s version, the demeaning postures and exaggerated features of her figures call attention to negative stereotypes of African Americans often found in minstrel shows, novels, and art of the 19th and early 20th centuries and reveal the corrosive power of stereotypes and prejudice.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, TMA New Acquisitions in Graphic Arts, December 21, 2001-March 30, 2002.

Toledo Museum of Art, PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper, March 14-June 14, 2020.