Voice of the Arts visited The Frick Pittsburgh to get a preview of their newest exhibition - "Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)".

Chief Curator and Director of Collections, Dawn Brean, spoke about the exhibition's contemporary artist, Kara Walker.

The exhibition features 15 large-scale prints from Walker's 2025 collection, and the 1866 publication of Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War. Dawn talks about Kara Walker's work, which puts silhouettes of enslaved peoples overtop the engravings from Harper Weekly's publication. It considers the similarities, omissions, and more between the past and the present.

Dawn also talks about her first experience seeing Kara Walker's work at the Carnegie International in 2000, the last time Kara Walker's work was presented in Pittsburgh. She shares her favorite piece from the exhibition; a work called "Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats", due to its mystery and compelling figure of a floating woman.

There are also labels for many of the works written by guests from across the Pittsburgh area. Dawn hopes these add to the scholarly labels written for each work, and give people a different perspective.

It's an exhibition that many can see again, and again, with new perspectives and conversations.

You can see "Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)" from March 1st to May 25th. There are special programs, including guest lecturers, guided tours, and a chance to talk to the guest labelists. Tickets are $15 to see the exhibition.

Visit https://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/Exhibition-Kara-Walker-Harpers-Pictorial-History-of-the-Civil-War-Annotated to learn more.