Kerry James Marshall: Painting and Other Stuff
Edited by Nav Haq. Texts by Okwui Enwezor and Nav Haq. Interview by Dieter Roelstraete.
Kerry James Marshall (born 1955) is widely admired for his painterly and sculptural explorations of Afro-American identity and history, and his attendant critiques of art history and the art economy. Among his well-known works are Rhythm Mastr, a comic book that transposes African mythology to a contemporary city; the Garden Project, which draws on the idyllic-sounding names given to housing projects; the Lost Boys series, which portrays young, disenfranchised black men; and his gigantic stamps of Black Power slogans. “I’ve always wanted to be a history painter on the grand scale of Giotto and Géricault,” he once said, and he has created many mural-sized canvases interweaving heroic and everyday aspects of recent Afro-American history. This monograph offers the largest retrospective of his works in all media, from painting and sculpture to collage, photography and installation.
Publisher: Ludion
Artists: Kerry James Marshall
Contributors: Okwui Enwezor, Nav Haq, Dieter Roelstraete
Designer: Jirka De Preter
Printer: DeckersSnoeck, Antwerp
Publication Date: 2014
Binding: Softcover
Dimensions: 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in (21 x 26 cm)
Pages: 192
Reproductions: 100 color
ISBN: 9789461301260
Retail: $50 US & Canada | £35 | €45
Status: Out Of Print
Kerry James Marshall
With a career spanning almost three decades, Kerry James Marshall is well known for his paintings depicting actual and imagined events from African-American history. His complex and multilayered portrayals of youths, interiors, nudes, housing estate gardens, land- and seascapes synthesize different traditions and genres, while seeking to counter stereotypical representations of black people in society. Marshall also produces drawings in the style of comic books, sculptural installations, photography, and video. As with his paintings, these works accumulate various stylistic influences to address the historiography of black art, while at the same time drawing attention to the fact that they are not inherently partisan because their subjects are black.