Kerry James MarshallUntitled (Frankenstein)2010
2010
About the Item
- Creator:Kerry James Marshall (1955, American)
- Creation Year:2010
- Dimensions:Height: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)Width: 19 in (48.26 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Berkeley, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU32321355323
Kerry James Marshall
In his multifaceted work, Kerry James Marshall strives to address “the lack in the image bank” by elevating Black figures who have been excluded from Western art. Using a variety of black pigments, the artist heightens the skin tones of his subjects to honor their identities rather than ignore them. Best known for his large-scale paintings, Marshall also works in collage, photography, video and other media.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Marshall later grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where his family relocated in 1963. As he studied art, including at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, he was struck by the absence of Black bodies in art history and museums. At the age of 25, he painted A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980). Its central figure, whose features almost merge with the background in their varying shades of black, references Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the protagonist of which cannot be seen as a human being by other members of society because he is Black. For Marshall, A Portrait marked the start of an ongoing examination of the simultaneous visibility and invisibility of Black Americans.
Marshall’s practice has continued to concentrate on confronting stereotypes in the Black experience by celebrating joy and commemorating moments of Black history. His paintings frequently engage with the white-dominated traditions of the art historical canon by borrowing elements of style ranging from the Renaissance to the abstract movements of the 20th century. While he has said that he is driven by a sense of social responsibility for what he witnessed growing up in the South before the Civil Rights Act and in Los Angeles during the Watts riots of 1965, Marshall doesn’t focus on trauma in his works’ narrative scenes. Instead, they regularly depict people involved in everyday activities yet portrayed with the monumentality of a tableau painting.
Now based in Chicago, Marshall is recognized as one of the country’s leading contemporary painters, with a 2016 retrospective, "Mastry," touring the MCA Chicago, MOCA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018, his painting Marshall’s Past Times (1997) sold for $21.1 million, the highest ever auction price for a work by a living Black artist.
Browse a collection of Kerry James Marshall’s art on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Berkeley, CA
- Return Policy
More From This Seller
View All2010s Figurative Prints
Etching
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints
Etching
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Etching, Aquatint
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints
Etching
21st Century and Contemporary Figurative Prints
Gold Leaf
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Etching, Aquatint
You May Also Like
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Etching
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Etching, Aquatint
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Etching
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Mixed Media, Pencil, Linocut, Screen
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Offset
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints
Monoprint, Ink
