Kerry James Marshall in "Identity"
Kerry James Marshall
From paintings and videos to his comic strip featuring African sculptures, Kerry James Marshall’s work unites influences from Renaissance painting and African-American traditions to question the authority of history and “reclaim the image of Blackness.”
“Either I’m working with a set of conventions that have already been established,” he says, “or I’m working against a set of conventions that have already been established.”
This segment is filmed in Chicago, where the artist lives, teaches and works. We gain glimpses into the domestic interiors of Marshall’s immediate family—interiors which find their way into the artist’s paintings, prints, and most recent sculptural and video installations.
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About the artists
Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, and currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. The artist was educated at Otis Art Institute, where he received a BFA in 1978 and an honorary doctorate in 1999. In his work, Marshall interrogates Western art history, recontextualizing the canon to include themes and imagery that have been historically excluded. Through his paintings, drawings, installations, and public works, the artist builds a body of work that privileges the Black figure, using race, history, and everyday Black experiences as the inspiration for his work.
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