Off site, but not forgotten

Last year the Addison exhibited Kara Walker’s Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), a portfolio recently acquired by the museum at the time. Walker enlarged select illustrations from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, published in 1866 and 1868, to use as backdrops against which her silhouetted characters play out new narratives in the prints as in Deadbrook after the Battle of Ezra's Church (on left).

The fifteen large-scale lithographs are currently on view at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University until November 11th. The Fogg’s installation commemorates “Drew Gilpin Faust’s inauguration as the first woman president of Harvard University.” If you’re in Boston, then stop by the Fogg to see Walker’s thought provoking portfolio.

If you find yourself wanting to learn more about Kara Walker’s art, then I can offer two current resources. First, Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through February 3rd, 2008. Organized by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, this exhibition is the first survey by an American museum of the artist’s work. Second, Kara Walker is featured in the October issue of Art in America and promises to be an informative read.

If your travels this fall do not lead you to Andover, then please consider these exhibitions in Boston and New York that explore the work of Kara Walker.


Jaime DeSimone
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Fellow