Kara Walker, American, born 1969; "Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta," from the portfolio "Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)," 2005; offset lithograph and silkscreen; 39x53 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Promised gift of Alison and John Ferring ©Kara Walker
Kara Walker made a name for herself before the age of 30 (she was the youngest McArthur recipient ever), with her expansive, black-and-white cut paper silhouettes. Her beautiful, often shocking images turned what had formerly been a quaint Victorian parlor art into a powerful way to deliver narratives about slavery, sexuality, violence, race, and American culture. Her work is multi-faceted, as any master's tends to be: it's graphic in both sense of the word, technically flawless, visually inventive, and filled with poetry and humor.
Tomorrow, the Saint Louis Art Museum opens Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) by Kara Walker, which includes two pieces from the artist's 2005 portfolio, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), a series of prints that comibine pages from an 1866 Harper's publication with Walker's trademark silhouettes. To put Walker's prints in a historical perspective, curator Rochelle Caruthers has also included a series of 19th-century Civil War-era wood engravings of African-Americans during the Civil War, pulled from issues of Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of the same era.
Harper's was curated in anticipation of the Navigating the Mainstream: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future conference (July 12-15), which marks the 20th anniversary of SLAM's Romare Bearden Graduate Minority Museum Fellowship; presenters include Bridgette Alexander, Art Advisor to the White House, and Chicago artist Theaster Gates, creator of the Rebuild Foundation, who will give conference attendees a tour of his current project in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) by Kara Walker opens in Gallery 321 on May 4 and runs through August 26. in addition, SLAM has scheduled two free gallery talks on July 19 at 11 a.m. and July 20 at 6 p.m., led by Iver Bernstein, Professor of African and African-American studies and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis. The Saint Louis Art Museum is located at 1 Fine Art Circle, Forest Park, 314-721-0072, slam.org.
