Kara Walker, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

Widely known for her radical engagement with issues of race, gender and sexuality, Kara Walker is one of the most successful and celebrated artists today. Her print series, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005 will be on display in celebration of its recent acquisition by TMA. It features 15 of the artist’s signature black silhouette figures in silkscreen layered over enlarged wood-engravings of Civil War scenes taken from Harper’s Pictorial History, first published in 1866. By uniting her contemporary re-imagining of events from an African-American perspective with the historical record, Walker creates a powerful visual statement that challenges the conventional one-sided textbook account of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.