Exposition « Kerry James Marshall. The Histories »

Organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich, the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories* presents seventy works, including eight previously unseen paintings created specifically for the exhibition.

Regarded as one of the most influential contemporary painters, Kerry James Marshall is known for monumental compositions that place Black figures at the center, frequently elevating the everyday to the level of epic history. By weaving these figures into art historical archetypes, the artist invites viewers to gauge the unquestionable power of their presence. Kerry James Marshall addresses themes such as the forced Middle Passage of enslaved Africans to the Americas, and the legacy of Black American mobilizations including the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, without ever directly depicting violence and alienation. His work draws inspiration as much from the established Western art history canon as from other visual vernacular traditions, notably nineteenth-century French painting, contemporary culture, Afrofuturism, comics, and science fiction.

Conceived with the artist's support, the exhibition aims to retrace more than four decades of his career. It showcases numerous cycles of work developed mainly through painting, but also through prints, drawings, and a sculpture, drawn from museums and private collections across North America and Europe.

Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris celebrates the work of Kerry James Marshall, continuing a groundbreaking series of monographic exhibitions in France devoted to Black American artists, notably Kara Walker (2007) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (2010). Kerry James Marshall works in series and cycles, as reflected in the chronological-thematic layout of the exhibition, featuring eleven groupings of works produced between 1980 and the present day.