The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

The Republic of New Afrika at a Crossroads

2016

Kara Walker

(American, b. 1969)
America
Raw pigment and watercolor medium, graphite, and (paper) collage on paper
left panel: 287 x 264.8 x 8.3 cm (113 x 104 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2016.54.a
© Kara Walker
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This is part of a series inspired by Walker’s 2016 stay in Rome, where she encountered the intersection between her work and Christian narratives.

Description

This singular drawing is at odds with Walker’s clear-cut figurative work, seeking to disrupt legibility with abstraction and ambiguity. Indeed, a tangle of bodies in chaotic motion covers the entire surface of the paper. The black separatist group mentioned in this work’s title sought to create a sovereign country for African Americans within the southern United States. The tumultuous composition raises the question of what the consequences would have been had the utopian plan gained momentum.
  • 2016
    Collection of the artist
    2016
    (Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2016-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    The Ecstasy of St. Kara: Kara Walker, New Work. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 10 – December 31, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=The Republic of New Afrika at a Crossroads|url=false|author=Kara Walker|year=2016|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2016.54.a