Kerry James Marshall: The Histories is a retrospective exhibition currently on at the Royal Academy in London.
The show is large, not only in the number of works on display but also in scale. Marshall‘s paintings reference the size of works he saw when visiting museums as a child. His ambition was to be up there on the wall alongside them so he focussed on figurative painting, bucking the trend when at art school.
His figures painted deep black are shown in environments dense with meaning. Knowledge and Wonder painted in 1995 (below) was made for the Legler, a public library in Chicago. The visitors here are in wonder at the knowledge these books will give them access to. The titles are well-known in the US.
In Past Times, a family relaxes in a Chicago park. The dreams and aspirations of different generations are reflected in the music they listen to.
Abstract elements are everywhere within the figuration. Note also that paper has often been collaged over canvas before painting.
Most of his paintings have layers of meaning within them: music, religion, colonialism, racial stereotypes (I could go on). Could This Be Love, 1992 is another case in point.
There is inevitably a lot to look at and decipher.
I like the fact that most paintings are on unstretched canvas, pinned directly onto the wall. They feel more approachable to me. As I said before, symbols and motifs abound making it impossible to absorb everything in one viewing.
Great America is a theme park in California, opened in 1976 to rival Disneyland but there is a sense of foreboding with the heads of ghosts echoing the horrors of the Middle Passage.
More to follow in my next post.