Kerry James Marshall facts for kids

Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is a famous American artist. He is known for his amazing paintings of Black people. He used to teach painting at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Marshall grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and later moved to South Central Los Angeles. He has spent much of his career living and working in Chicago, Illinois.

A big art show of his work, called Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, was put together by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2016.

Early Life and Art Education

Kerry James Marshall was born on October 17, 1955, in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up there and later in Los Angeles, California. His father fixed watches, which taught Marshall how to understand complex things.

His home in Los Angeles was close to the Black Panther Party headquarters. This made him feel a sense of social responsibility. It also influenced his artwork.

Learning to Draw and Paint

In high school, Marshall started learning to draw figures. His teacher was social realist painter Charles White. Marshall continued to learn from White in college. He said White became like a friend and mentor to him.

Marshall studied at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. He earned his art degree in 1978.

Artist's Career Highlights

Marshall received a special award called a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997. This award is given to talented people who show great originality. From 1993 to 2006, he was a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

In 2013, President Barack Obama chose Marshall to be on the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. This shows how important his work is. Other artists, like Hank Willis Thomas, say Marshall has greatly influenced their own art.

Artistic Influences and Themes

Untitled (Studio) (2014) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022

Marshall's childhood in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles deeply affected his art. This area was important during the Black Power and Civil Rights movements. He developed a unique style early in his career. He often uses very dark, almost black figures in his paintings.

These figures show his view of African Americans, especially Black men. They explore how Black people are seen inside and out. His art also challenges racial stereotypes in American society. This theme has been central to his work for decades.

Marshall creates large paintings, sculptures, and other art pieces. They often focus on African-American life and history. He believes that painting is a powerful way to tell stories in Western art. He was inspired by Bill Traylor, an artist born into slavery. Traylor's work encouraged Marshall to create art about older racial ideas.

Marshall is one of many modern artists of color who use race in their work. He uses blackness to show differences and challenge how Black people are left out of art history. He wants to make Black beauty visible in art. He once said he wanted to create images of Black bodies. This was to show that beauty is not only linked to whiteness.

Marshall's paintings often use allegory and symbolism. Many of his works deal with unfairness from colonial times. He is known for his large acrylic paintings on canvas. His art mixes realism with collage and bold patterns. His images often look like public banners. Viewers might see detailed text and figures looking right at them.

His art is connected to the Black Arts movement. Marshall explores what it means to be Black in America. He looks at the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and Black beauty. He also shows how Black people can feel invisible in society. His art is deeply shaped by his upbringing in Alabama in the 1950s and Los Angeles in the 1960s.

Marshall also created comic strips, like Rhythm Mastr. It tells the story of a Black teenager who gets superpowers from African sculptures. These powers come from the seven gods of the Yoruba pantheon. Marshall wanted to show how African myths are often forgotten compared to Greek or Norse myths. He was concerned that there were not enough Black heroes for kids to look up to.

He believes that Black artists should add themes of race to their work. This helps to make art history more diverse. Some of his works, like La Venus Negra and Voyager, mix African and Western art styles. They show the struggle of African Americans to find their place in American society. Marshall's art often shows the emotions of being an urban African American. It displays middle-class Black homes and families.

His Garden Project and Souvenir series explore race issues from the 1960s and 1970s. The Garden Project criticizes the fancy names of housing projects that hide poverty. The Lost Boys series looks at young Black men who are "lost" in poverty and joblessness. Marshall's work is always changing and important. It helps people think about finding their identity.

Marshall once said, "I always knew that I wanted to make work that was about something: history, culture, politics, social issues." He wanted to master the skills to do just that.

Important Artworks

Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980)

This painting was a new step for Marshall. It was the first time he painted a Black figure. Before this, he mostly worked with collage. It is a small painting made with egg tempera on paper. It uses mostly black colors. The painting shows the head and shoulders of a Black man with a big white smile. Since 2019, this painting is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art (LACMA).

Voyager (1992)

In the early 1990s, Marshall based some of his art on real American history. His 1992 painting, Voyager, is about race issues in the United States. It shows a beautiful ship that was secretly used to carry African slaves. The painting has many symbols. There are two Black figures in the boat and flowers around the woman's neck. The light clouds contrast with the dark background. A skull in the water hints at the sad future of the Africans. The woman looks uneasy. Marshall makes us think about the dark secret of a beautiful ship.

Black Beauty: Untitled (La Venus Negra) (1992) and Untitled (Supermodel) (1994)

Marshall explored Black beauty compared to Western ideas in Untitled (La Venus Negra) (1992). The figure almost disappears into her dark background. But if you look closely, her curvy shape shows a powerful woman. Her deep black skin makes her even more striking. The painting Untitled (Supermodel) (1994) is at the Honolulu Museum of Art. It shows a Black woman trying to look like white models with blonde hair. The artist himself appears in the painting with pale lipstick and a long blonde wig.

Marshall admitted he had not thought a Black woman could be a goddess of love and beauty. But his painting proves it is possible. He challenges the idea that a goddess must be a white woman with long hair. This connects to the search for African-American identity in the Western world. The African pattern in the background adds more meaning. It refers to the Harlem Renaissance movement. This movement wanted to add traditional African art to African-American art. Marshall mixes African art and Western ideas in his painting. He shows that these two cultures can live together in harmony.

The Lost Boys Series (1993–1995)

One of Marshall's most famous series is The Lost Boys (1993–1995). It shows the lives and problems many African Americans faced. These portraits show young African-American boys from the shoulders up. Their skin is very dark, but their eyes are extremely white. This contrast is common in Marshall's art. The portraits also have almost completely white images, like white circles and flowers. This creates even more contrast. The artist said this series shows how these young boys lose their innocence early. They become victims of poverty and public housing.

The Garden Project Series

Vignette #2, 2008. Acrylic on Plexiglas displayed at Chicago Art Institute.

The Garden Project is a series of paintings that speak out against the false promises of low-income public housing. It also shows how African Americans find happiness and build community despite hard conditions. Marshall reveals the big differences between the ideal promises of Public Housing Projects and the harsh reality of living in them. But his work also hints at the hope and community African Americans created in these tough places.

Marshall was inspired by his old home, Nickerson Gardens. His series makes fun of the word "garden" in the names of these projects. The five paintings show different public housing projects. They explore how the "garden-like" names are silly for these failed places. These large paintings are like murals. They use collage and rough surfaces. This shows the decay of public housing and the difficult life there.

Many Mansions (1994)

Marshall's Many Mansions, from 1994, shows the difference between the name "Stateway Gardens" and the real life there. The painting seems cheerful, with a blooming landscape. The very black figures are planting flowers. The trees are perfectly trimmed, and everything looks plentiful. But Marshall's Black figures, as one art critic noted, are "stiff and stylized." They represent poor Black men living in public housing. Unlike the cheerful landscape, they are not happy. One stares at the viewer, while the other two look away. The buildings look like cardboard backdrops, showing that the situation is not real. The truth is not in the beautiful scenery, but in the fake buildings and the sad images of the men who live there.

Souvenir Series

The Souvenir series tells the story of the loss American society felt when leaders in politics, literature, arts, and music died. Souvenir III, finished in 1998, focuses on an angel. This angel connects the present with the past. She is like a messenger and takes care of the living room. The figures are subtle, making the viewer look closer. These figures are different from the abstract art some Black artists felt they had to make to be famous. Marshall calls this mix of strong art and political ideas "visual authority." It makes society pay attention.

In Souvenir III, the names of important Black historical figures and their death years are at the top of the large painting. This shows the idea of timelessness. The viewer thinks about the legacies of civil rights heroes and Black artists. The paintings use phrases like "We Mourn Our Loss" and "In Memory Of" to help us remember. Souvenir IV (1998) is also set in a middle-class living room, like Marshall's family home. It shows realism with a touch of the magical. Through this painting, the viewer travels to the Civil Rights era. The painting itself is like a postcard of this journey. The whole scene reminds us of ancient Egyptian rituals for the dead. Souvenir III and IV are done in the grisaille style, an old painting technique. Souvenir I and II (1997) use color. If you look at the backgrounds of the Souvenir series, you see how rich the settings are, even in the black and white paintings. A special touch by Marshall is repeated stamps in a painting. Here, they are angel wings around the Black leaders and glittery floral backgrounds.

Public Artworks

In 2017, Marshall was asked to create a public mural called Rush More. It is on the side of the Chicago Cultural Center. The artwork honors women who have helped Chicago's culture.

In 2018, two of Marshall's large artworks became part of a public discussion. In May, his painting Past Times (1997) was sold for $21 million. It had hung in McCormick Place for many years. This sale helped a public agency get money. Past Times was also important in his 2016 museum show.

In October, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel planned to improve the Legler Branch of the Chicago Public Library. The plan was to sell the library's painting Knowledge and Wonder (1995) to pay for it. After many people, including Marshall, criticized this, the Mayor stopped the auction.

In 2021, the Washington National Cathedral chose Marshall to create two new stained glass windows. These windows replaced older ones from 1953 that honored Confederate generals. Marshall's new windows, called "Now and Forever," are his first work in stained glass. They were shown and dedicated at the cathedral on September 23, 2023.

Art Exhibitions

Marshall has had many solo shows and exhibitions in museums and galleries. These include:

• Kerry James Marshall, Telling Stories: Selected Paintings (1994-1995)
• Kerry James Marshall: Mementos (1998-2000)
• Along the Way (2005-2006)
• Kerry James Marshall: In the Tower (2013) at the National Gallery of Art
• Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (2016-2017) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

His art has also been shown in many group exhibitions, such as:

• Documenta X (1997)
• The 50th Venice Biennale (2003)
• Documenta 12 (2007)
• Afro-Atlantic Histories (2022)

Notable Works in Public Collections

Personal Life

Kerry James Marshall is married to Cheryl Lynn Bruce. She is a playwright, director, and actress. They met when Bruce worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Marshall was starting an art residency there. In 1987, Marshall moved to Chicago's South Side, where Bruce lived. They got married in 1989. His stepdaughter is United States Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove.

Awards and Recognition

• 1997 – MacArthur Fellowship
• 1999 – Honorary doctorate, Otis College of Art and Design
• 2017 – Fifth Star Award, for his contributions to Chicago
• 2022 – Elected Honorary Royal Academician

Film and TV Work

Film

Television

See also

In Spanish: Kerry James Marshall para niños