On Museums
Kerry James Marshall
Seen installing his 2008 exhibition “Black Romantic” at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, Kerry James Marshall confronts art institutions—and the canon of Western Art in general—about the unignorable absence of Black artists.
“At some point you become acutely aware of your absence in the whole historical timeline that develops this narrative of mastery,” says Marshall. “We take it for granted that this is just the way art history has been structured.”
Featured artists
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.
