He is called one of the main black artists of our time. On his canvases, Marshall explores the everyday life of black communities in the United States. The purpose of black romantic art by Kerry James Marshall is to normalize African American culture, which has long been rejected in predominantly white circles.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, his work takes on new meaning. Most of Kerry James Marshall’s artwork is dedicated to people with dark skin.
One of the most lauded figurative painters working today, Kerry James Marshall challenges the marginalization of African Americans with canvases that both revere and subvert the Western canon. The artist’s extensive knowledge of art history, including Black folk art, contributes to the formal rigor of his compositions. His subject matter derives from Black culture and stereotypes, as well as his own life experience. Marshall’s paintings often explode with color, while their central protagonists are always painted with deep, unequivocal black pigments. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997 and has exhibited at Documenta and the Venice Biennale, as well as in major exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. On the secondary market, Marshall’s work regularly sells for seven figures. The artist also makes drawings, videos, and installations.
K.J. Marshall studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago, then studied painting at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. The artist works mainly in the field of historical painting. Kerry James Marshall’s paintings are kept in museums and galleries in Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Miami, etc.
Through art, he promotes African American culture to a wider audience. On his canvases, African traditions coexist with pictures of life in the ghetto. On his canvases, African traditions coexist with pictures of life in the ghetto. He gets a dark shade by mixing multi-colored paints with three types of black.
Every Kerry James Marshall artwork is a story of the struggle for civil rights. Most of Marshall’s paintings are associated with allegory and are devoted to the lawlessness of the colonial regimes. Marshall is best known for his ornate large acrylic paintings on unstretched canvas.
Kerry James Marshall’s paintings combined rough realism with elements of collage and signage with lively and highly patterned scenery.
Marshall’s first major solo exhibition to tour the country was at the Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago in 1998. His work has been exhibited in many American and international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2003) and Documenta (1997). and 2007).
Marshall’s work is included in many public museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Harvard Art Museums, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles, National Gallery of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.
