Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

Originally presented in January of 2020, Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) considers experiences of racism toward African Americans that were absent or only alluded to in historical representations of the Civil War. Created in collaboration with the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, New York, each print in the portfolio is an enlargement of a woodcut plate from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Chicago, 1866), overlaid with Walker’s silkscreen cutout figures rendered in solid black silhouette.

This exhibition launched the Museum’s 2020/20+ Women @ NBMAA initiative, in which all exhibitions will be dedicated to female artists, in honor of the centennial of women’s suffrage in America. Read more.

Take a virtual tour of Kara Walker here.

Artist Bio

New York-based artist Kara Walker is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures that have appeared in numerous exhibitions worldwide. Read more.