Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures.[1] He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[2] He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved in childhood to South Central Los Angeles.[3] He has spent much of his career in Chicago, Illinois.
Kerry James Marshall
October 17, 1955
Painter, sculptor, professor
Cheryl Lynn Bruce
A retrospective exhibition of his work, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, was assembled by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2016.[4]
Career[edit]
Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997.[11] He was a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago in the School of Art and Design from 1993 until 2006.[12] In 2013, he was named for the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by President Barack Obama, one of seven new appointees chosen.[13][14]
Hank Willis Thomas said Marshall was a big influence on him and his practice.[15]
Work[edit]
Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980)[edit]
The painting Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980) was a departure for Marshall, and was the first painting he made of a Black figure.[26] Prior to this work, Marshall was working in collage.[27] It is a small painting, made with egg tempera on paper.[28] It was created primarily in shades of black and depicts the bust of a black man with a large white smile and gapped teeth.[27] Since 2019, this painting lives in the collection at Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art (LACMA).[27]
Exhibitions[edit]
Marshall has staged several solo shows and exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States and internationally. His solo shows include Kerry James Marshall, Telling Stories: Selected Paintings (1994-1995), originating at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland;[40] Kerry James Marshall: Mementos (1998-2000), originating at the Renaissance Society, Chicago;[41] Along the Way (2005-2006), originating at Camden Arts Centre, London;[42] Kerry James Marshall: In the Tower (2013), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;[43] and Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (2016-2017), originating at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[44]
His work has also been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including documenta X (1997);[45] the 50th Venice Biennale (2003);[46] documenta 12 (2007);[47] and Afro-Atlantic Histories (2022).[48]
Personal life[edit]
He is married to playwright, director, actress Cheryl Lynn Bruce.[36] They met while Bruce was working at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Marshall was beginning an art residency there.[92] In 1987, Marshall followed Bruce in moving to her hometown on Chicago's South Side, where they were married in 1989 at the South Side Community Art Center.[3][93] His stepdaughter is United States Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove.