Book jacket images

FEATURED ESSAY

Read and Reflect: A Moment of Pause

In Kara Walker: A Pictorial History of the Civil War [Annotated], Walker presents a powerful visual dialogue on the Civil War era. Her work tackles some of the most difficult aspects of American history, exposing complex narratives of race, violence, and identity. To help visitors engage more deeply with these themes, we’ve created a dedicated reading and resource area within the gallery. This curated collection of books provides historical, cultural, and artistic context to the works on display, offering critical analyses of Walker’s art alongside texts that explore broader topics such as race, memory, slavery’s legacy, and Civil War history.

We hope this resource not only enhances the visual experience but also encourages extended reflection. Walker’s work demands more than passive observation—it addresses histories that are painful, urgent, and still resonate in today’s discourse. Additionally, a reflection wall is available for visitors to share their thoughts, questions, and reactions to the exhibition. Our goal is for this communal space to foster shared experiences and provide an outlet for processing the intense emotions that Walker’s work often evokes.

Interested in a guided tour of the exhibition? Schedule a small group experience with our team of UMN Student Tour Guides at [email protected]

Recommended Reading

A Black Gaze
Tina M. Campt, A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See (MIT Press, 2021)
American Passage
William R. Cross, Winslow Homer: American Passage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022)
Wide Awake
Jon Grinspan, Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024)
Degrees of Freedom
William D. Green, Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865–1912 (University of Minnesota Press, 2015)
Kara Walker Black Hole
Anita Haldemann (Ed.), Kara Walker: A Black Hole is Everything a Star Longs to Be (JRP|Editions, 2021)
Scenes of Subjection
Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 1997)
The Art of Remembering
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, The Art of Remembering: Essays on African American Art and History (Duke University Press, 2024)
Slavery's Reach
Christopher P. Lehman, Slavery's Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019)
Black Joy
Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts (Ed.), Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration (Gallery Books, 2022)
Seeing the Unspeakable
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker (Duke University Press, 2004)
Kara Walker My Complement
C. Reinhardt (Ed.), Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (Walker Art Center, 2019)
White Shadows Blackface
Robert Hobbs, Kara Walker: White Shadows in Blackface (Hatje Cantz, 2018)
Crosscurrents
Herdrich, Stephanie L., and Sylvia Yount, with contributions by Daniel Immerwahr, Christopher Riopelle, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022)
Book of Hours
Kara Walker, Kara Walker — Book of Hours (Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 2020)
Black Out
Asma Naeem, Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now (Princeton University Press, 2018)
Archival illustration from Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War, with title text by the same name
Alfred H. Guernsey and Henry M. Alden, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Fairfax Press, 1985)