American artist Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955 Birmingham, Alabama, lives in Chicago) is considered one of the most important contemporary painters. His large-format, multifaceted works consistently focus on Black people – in dialogue with the Western tradition of history painting from Giotto to Manet. But where his predecessors left blank spaces, Marshall makes visible what had long remained invisible.
The paintings of Kerry James Marshall – powerful images of the life and history of the African American community, are imbued with colour, pain, hope and vibrancy. They are full of art-historical and socio-cultural references – to everything from the Civil Rights movement to comic and fantasy culture – as well as personal memories. With these diverse motifs, Marshall not only comments on history and social reality but also celebrates diversity, resilience and confidence.
This exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich is Marshall’s largest to date outside the US – and the first major survey of his work in the German-speaking world. It features a comprehensive selection of his most important works, as well as a series of new paintings created specifically for the exhibition.
An exhibition in cooperation with the Royal Academy, London, and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
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Ill: Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Beauty Queen), 2014, Private collection, © Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner, London
