Kerry James Marshall – An Artist that Paints History

Through narrative scenes captured from history and his own life, Kerry James Marshall’s work explores the complex effects of the Civil Rights Movement on African American’s Daily life. He specializes in expanding obscure objects and moments significant to black culture. Marshall is one of the most influential contemporary painters of his generation known as an international monument in African Culture.

Born on October 17, 1955, in Birmingham, AL, Marshall grew up in a small neighborhood in Central Las Angeles. He later studied at the Otis College of Art where he completed his Bachelor in Fine Arts. For the first few decades of his career, he found successful but little fame as an artist. He had no issues selling his wide range of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs.

Marshall’s piece to the right, “Sob, Sob,” depicts an African Female Figure lying in front of a shelf of African History books. She gazes into the interior with unclear intentions. There are text bubbles above her reading “Sob, Sob,” as if she is crying in despair like she is trapped. This painting was the pivotal moment in Marshall’s career recognized as one of his earliest paintings that address the concept of Black aesthetics.

Marshall’s more popular works often include figures depicting African American subjects. One question that Marshall commonly gets asked is why he paints his figures with such flat, dark colors. He explains that he uses the dark flat color as a rhetorical device. He goes in-depth to explain the time he was reading the “Invisible Man,” and compares it to the attitude towards African Americans. He notes that the condition is not physical transparency, but psychological invisibility. His paintings carry a deep meaning representing the unwanted and denied presence in the American Mindset.

Finished in 2012, Marshall’s Acrylic masterpiece, “School of Culture” hangs up in the Birmingham Museum of Art. The three Pan-African colors on the flag represent the blood of black ancestry, shed for liberation, African existence as a nation, and the abundant natural wealth of Africa. If you look closely, you can see the children near a Disney depiction of a blonde woman, this is a symbol of the dominant white beauty standards in Black Culture. Marshall creates Black iconography by including the poster on the top right which won the Turner prize in 2010. There is so much symbolism that Marshall can easily point out to viewers. Truly a mesmerizing masterpiece I can only dream of seeing in real life.

Marshall has won countless awards, grants, and residencies. He has enormous confidence in himself and his phenomenal courtesy of clearly talking about his work with keen precision put many to ease. One time in an interview he states, “Everything I do is based on my understanding of art history.” His astounding work is the reason behind his well-deserved fame. I always find myself inspired by artists that paint with deeper meanings behind their work and Kerry Marshall will definitely be one I look up to for a while.

Citations:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/kerry-james-marshall/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-epic-style-of-kerry-james-marshall
https://figuringhistory.site.seattleartmuseum.org/kerry-james-marshall/school-beauty-school-culture/
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/sob-sob-78744
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kerry-james-marshall-de-style
https://art21.org/read/kerry-james-marshall-many-mansions/