Object Details
Artist
Bernard Gotfryd, 1924 - 3 Jun 2016
Sitter
Alice Walker, born 9 Feb 1944
Exhibition Label
Born Eatonton, Georgia
Alice Walker is a model of the engaged intellectual: her fiction is infused with the sense of righteous purpose that drove her early involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s when she was a college student. In the 1980s, she helped popularize the term “womanist” as a way to recognize the diverging priorities of women of color from those of their white feminist counterparts.
As the daughter of sharecroppers from rural Georgia, Walker has maintained an interest in vernacular Southern Black culture, working to revive the work of Zora Neale Hurston and other African American women writers who focused on folk life. In addition to writing poetry and criticism, Walker has published several novels, including The Color Purple (1982), which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The book quickly rose to the top of the best-seller list, and its film adaptation was nominated for eleven Academy Awards.
Nacida en Eatonton, Georgia
Alice Walker es modelo de la intelectual comprometida. Sus obras de ficción reflejan la justeza de propósito que la involucró en el movimiento pro derechos civiles cuando aún era universitaria, en la década de 1960. En los años ochenta contribuyó a popularizar el término “mujerista” para señalar la diferencia de prioridades entre las mujeres de color y las feministas blancas.
Hija de campesinos aparceros de Georgia, Walker ha demostrado un interés constante en la cultura vernácula negra del sur del país y ha luchado por rescatar la obra de Zora Neale Hurston y otras afroamericanas que escribieron sobre la vida de la gente común. Además de poesía y crítica, Walker ha publicado varias novelas, entre ellas El color púrpura (1982), que ganó el Premio Nacional del Libro y el Premio Pulitzer. La novela llegó rápidamente a las listas de los más vendidos y su adaptación para el cine recibió 11 nominaciones al Oscar.
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Date
April 29, 1976
Object number
NPG.2013.99
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© The Bernard Gotfryd Revocable Living Trust
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 35.5 × 27.2 cm (14 × 10 11/16")
Sheet: 35.5 × 27.8 cm (14 × 10 15/16")
Mat: 71.1 × 55.9 cm (28 × 22")
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Topic
Interior
Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Chair
Costume\Jewelry\Ring
Costume\Jewelry\Watch\Wrist watch
Alice Walker: Female
Alice Walker: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer
Alice Walker: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Activist
Alice Walker: Literary awards\Pulitzer Prize
Alice Walker: Literary awards\National Book Award
Portrait
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npg_NPG.2013.99