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other 2011 exhibitions › Sassy Sarcastic Swooper (Stephen Rolfe Powell) › Corner Store (Okay Mountain) › Emergence (Julius Friedman) › Untitled (Werner Reiterer) › Sleepers (Abbas Kiarostami) › Transformations (Bonfanti and Wolberger) › All Over (Teresa Diehl) › Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War › Fundred Dollar Bill Project (Mel Chin) › New Aquisitions and Highlights › Moments from Israel (Rina Castelnuovo) › Woman on the Run (Tracey Snelling)

Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War

Kara Walker
May 2010 - February 2011
in Gallery 2, off the Atrium

Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
Offset lithography/silkscreen
Set of 14 prints, Edition 26 of 35

Enlarging Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War, first published in 1866, Walker overlaid each lithograph to reinterpret this famous document of American history. "These prints," Walker explains, "are the landscapes that I imagine exist in the back of my somewhat more austere wall pieces." Walker uses a variety of strategies to break in, cover over, or otherwise intervene within the narrative of the woodcuts, changing the images original dramatic purposes in favor of ones of her own invention. Walker's silhouettes interrupt Union maneuvers as often as Confederate ones, as if no matter which side wins, there will be suffering.

Since the 1990s, Walker has used the technique of cut-paper silhouettes placed on white backgrounds. Historically, this type of silhouette was used to decorate 18th and 19th century middle class homes. Walker appropriates the technique to stage scenes illustrating racial suppression while interweaving Civil War iconography and racist stereotypes. She highlights the similarities between the silhouette and the nature of African-American stereotypes, in which complex details of individuals are reduced or generalized into easily recognizable outlines.

Walker's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. She studied at the Atlanta College of Art and received her M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1997, she became the youngest person ever awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award.

Exhibited Works

• Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• An Army Train, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Bank's Army Leaving Simmsport, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Buzzard's Roost Pass, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Crest of Pine Mountain, Where General Polk Fell, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Deadbrook after the Battle of Ezra's Church, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Foote's Gun-Boats Ascending to Attack Fort Henry, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Lost Mountain at Sunrise, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Occupation of Alexandria, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Scene of McPherson's Death, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005
• Signal Station, Summit of Maryland Heights, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005

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2011 Exhibitions