Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

The U.S.’s dark and violent past continues to inspire Kara Walker’s new paintings and drawings; here, Walker presents a portrait of Grandison Harris, a 19th century man enslaved and assigned to rob graves to supply the classrooms of anatomy students at a Georgia medical college. After the Civil War, financial constraints forced his decision to return to the college and continue to supply bodies until his eventual death and burial in the same cemetery that he revisited in his working life. (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Sept 16th).

Kara Walker, detail of Paradox of the Negro Burial Ground, oil stick, collage, and mixed media on paper, 30.25 x 22.75 inches, 2017.