BARBARA WALKER MBE, RA (b. 1964)
Vanishing Point 13 (Veronese), 2020
graphite on embossed paper
paper: 88.2 x 77.6 cm
image: 69.5 x 61.7 cm
unique
Vanishing Point is an ongoing series of drawings which explores the presence of Black subjects in Western European Painting. Walker takes inspiration from historic paintings by artists such as Titian, Veronese and Van Dyck and makes graphite drawings on embossed paper:
‘Through this process the Black figure is foregrounded in high definition, while the visibility of the other components in the work are diminished, embossed to leave just a trace. In past bodies of work such as Shock and Awe, the removal of detail (through erasing, tearing away, cutting out, blotting, whitewashing) has served to place emphasis upon what I see as a compelling absence of Black representation in our national archives and, by extension, in the collective memory of society. This matter remains central and pertinent to my work and research practice. The process here effectively transfers visibility back to the Black subject.’
Vanishing Point was first developed for the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award that Walker received in 2017 as part of the Jerwood Drawing Prize. She was the first recipient of this award and it allowed her to develop this new body of work for exhibition at the Jerwood Gallery, now Hastings Contemporary in 2019.
Provenance
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, where purchased March 2021.
Exhibited
Welbeck, Harley Gallery, Kindred Spirits, November 2021 - February 2022.
London, Cristea Roberts Gallery, Vanishing Point, March - April 2022.