Kerry James Marshall, African American Art New Frontiers
The work of Kerry James Marshall is centered on African American life, culture and history. His body of work explores new frontiers in racial politics, socio-economical issues and the artists’ own feelings & views about social responsibility. Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1955 and later relocated to South Central, Los Angeles near the Black Panthers headquarters.
Marshall grew-up in a country in which there were not many black artists to reference and “black studies” were in their early stages. Through his work, the artist has committed himself to compensating for the absence and invisibility of black culture. The artist attempts to reconcile African American art and culture with images of western ideals in his paintings by highlighting black identity within their historical context and the current socio political situation.
Video courtesy of Museo Reina Sofia, Painting and Other Stuff, 2014
For Marshall there is an evident gap in the [Western] art history archive. We can define his whole body of work as a counter-archive, reading between the lines of mainstream culture during the past decades to our recent date.
“I’m acutely aware of and obsessively invested in how the narrative of art history is structured, and the burden that history imposes on artists ambitious enough to dream of being part of it. It’s only in the mid-twentieth century that you start seeing black people making artworks that were thought important enough to talk about in relationship to that history. So the challenge is to gain an uncontestable place in the pantheon of art history without surrendering the desire to make pictures with black figures.” – from “Kerry James Marshall: Look See”, 2014 published by David Zwirner Books.
Today, this idea of historical authorship still exists in a subtle way. As millennial and avid social media, reality tv consumers, are we somehow responsible for those new created celebrities with multi-million dollar contracts or are we just mere followers; spectators of this make-believe machine, hooked-up to a magic formula tapping through our phones? Think about it.
His signature style combines figurative painting with deep cultural symbolism, using a bold color palette and intricate compositions to explore themes of race, history, and the African American experience. Marshall’s work often addresses the absence of Black figures in the historical canon of Western art, and he is known for creating monumental works that confront both the legacy of slavery and the complexities of contemporary Black identity.
Marshall gained widespread recognition for his iconic paintings such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980s), De Style (1993), and Past Times (1997), which examine the nuances of Black history, culture, and identity. His Garden Project (1998-2000) and Untitled (2009) also highlight his deft use of space and symbolism to question the historical invisibility of Black people in art.
In recent years, Marshall’s work has garnered significant attention at auctions, with his pieces consistently breaking records. His painting Past Times (1997) set a record in 2018 when it sold for $21.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction, making it the highest-selling work by a living African American artist at the time. Marshall’s works continue to be highly coveted, and he remains a major force in the art world, using his art to confront and challenge the historical and ongoing marginalization of Black figures in the cultural landscape. His legacy as an artist who reshapes the narrative of American history and culture is firmly established, and his work continues to resonate with audiences and collectors worldwide.
—words by VAGA editors. Images courtesy of Birmingham Museum of Art and Jack Shainman Gallery.
More Art Galleries and Shows
“Touching Color” 98 disruptive pastel paintings by 68 artists at the art gallery Fundation Mapfre Barcelona
Phillips Inaugurates 2020 with Banksy & KAWS Art Sale Show in New York