Porgy & Bess
Date2013
MediumBook: Johannot paper, Japanese paper, goatskin leather, calico cloth, and board; Slip Case: cotton cloth
DimensionsBook Closed: 12 15/16 × 10 1/16 × 1 3/8 inches (32.9 × 25.6 × 3.5 cm)
Book Open: 12 15/16 × 20 1/4 inches (32.9 × 51.4 cm)
Slip Case: 13 3/16 × 10 3/16 × 1 1/2 inches (33.5 × 25.9 × 3.8 cm)
MarkingsWatermark on the bottom right corner of the paper for Johannot.
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by the Gari Melchers Collectors' Society in honor of Courtney McNeil.
Object number2021.13.1.a-.b
CopyrightBook layout and text: © Arion Press. Artwork: © Kara Walker.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextIn her Porgy and Bess libretto and lithographs, Kara Walker expresses the enduring appeal and fraught history of George Gershwin’s most celebrated opera. Debuting in 1935, Porgy and Bess is set in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina. It tells the tragic love story of a Black vagrant, Porgy, as he relentlessly attempts to save the woman he loves, Bess, from a host of dangerous men.
Although the first Porgy and Bess libretto (the text of an opera or other musical theater) was produced by DuBose Heyward, there is no fixed text and various librettos for the opera exist. While intended as a libretto, Walker also considers this work to be an artist book. Indeed, no detail was left to chance—from the individual pages that were hand-sewn into the volume to the choice of calico cloth (“reminiscent of fabric used by the Black women of Charleston, South Carolina, in the period, a pattern of triangles that recalls hurricane flags”).
Walker was introduced to Porgy and Bess while growing up in Stockton, California. As a child, she noticed that her mother had a special understanding of the opera that she could not yet grasp. This observation sparked a lifelong journey of feeling “caught up in the piece,” its “heavy atmosphere hanging around a timeless act of love.” The book and lithographs are an homage to the feeling of the songs, the complex history behind the production and reception, and the heartbreaking love story that has captivated Walker and audiences for generations.
Text written for In the Shadows, on view September 3-November 28, 2021.Subject MatterCharleston, South Carolina, United States of America
