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
right panel: 287 x 266.1 x 8.3 cm (113 x 104 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2016.54.b
© Kara Walker
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This is part of 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.b