Kerry James Marshall

Kerry James Marshall was born during the early years of the African-American civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama.  To this day, this movement greatly influences his art.  The majority of his work has themes rooted in his African-American culture and upbringing, as well as highlight African-American pop culture.  Marshall works with a variety of mediums including painting, installations, and public projects and most of them make a social statement regarding ethnicity and culture, specifically in the United States.  Marshall also incorporates numerous references to art history, famous people, and historical events into his art

A unique characteristic of Marshall’s work is the pure black color of the skin tones of the figures in his paintings.  Though somewhat unrealistic, the color choice highlights the figures and their ethnicity as an important component of the painting.  Marshall definitely considers the social connotations of blackness and uses the color to comment on these issues.

Personally, I really enjoy Marshall’s work and how he uses his art as a means of communication.  Although I also appreciate the aesthetics of his pieces, I truly admire the concepts driving his production and his approach to art.  When asked if beauty is important to him as an artist, part of Marshall’s response was,

“You know, you see a picture of a giraffe next to a picture of a locomotive - that's an amazing juxtaposition of things. And so what I try to do with my work is create that same sense of amazement, that same sense of wonder, that same sense of authority, that same kind of presence - so that things seem at once familiar and indecipherable at the same time. And that familiarity and indecipherability can be called beauty,” (Art 21, http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/marshall/clip2.html).

Watts 1963, 1995
acrylic/collage on canvas
114 x 135 inches