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Kerry James Marshall "Our Town" I? ve always wanted to be a history painter on a grand scale like Giotto and Gericault... but the moment when that kind of painting was really possible seems so distant, especially after Pollock and Poker. Nevertheless, I persist, trying to construct meaningful pictures that solicit identification with, and reflection on Black existential realities...
Robert Johnson? s blues are a musical equivalent. Their undeniable spiritual power is at once irreverently profane, formally complex, viscerally accessible, and hauntingly beautiful. Kerry James Marshall, letter to Arthur Jan, Summer, 1994 An artist perceives the world and reflects his understanding of this world in his pictures. In these pictures one can see the soul, the mind and the inner world of the artist. The picture Our Town may be the key to understanding the creative work of Kerry James Marshall, his high values, goals, and his place among the contemporary artists of the world.
In my essay I will estimate the contribution Kerry James Marshall has made to the development of modern art. To achieve this goal I will analyze Kerry Marshalls "Our Town" (1995, acrylic and collage on un stretched canvas; 100 x 124 inches, Collection of the artist, ) compare it with some other his works, such as - Watts 1963, (1995. Acrylic and collage on un stretched canvas; 114 x 135 inches). In order to widen the scope of my analysis, I will explore the artist's life, his positions on art, politics, etc. And finally, to determine the meaning of Marshalls painting and to evaluate his contribution, I will draw art historical context and mention briefly the main aspects of postmodernism, its trends, notions and figures.
A remarkable photographer, painter, installation artist and printmaker, Kerry Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955. In Los Angeles he entered Otis Art Institute, where he got a Bachelor of Arts, and later, in 1999, an honorary doctorate. The biographical motives mark many of Marshalls works. For example, Lost Boys series are dedicated to his youngest brother, who spent seven years in prison. Grief and sorrow which are dominating the emotional sphere of Lost Boys refer to the concept of being lost in society. As the artist himself noted, he also had the same discouraging experience of being lost in America, lost in ghetto, lost in public housing, lost in joblessness and lost in illiteracy.
In this way, Marshall attempts to attract the attention of our society to the problem of the people who are lost in their privation and disadvantages. Unfortunately, it is the black people who remain in the category of vulnerable and socially unprotected. In fact, the problem of privation is the problem of blacks in many cases and this determines the policy of Kerry Marshalls pictures. The subject matter of Marshalls paintings is often rooted in African-American popular culture and spiritually tied with the geography of his upbringing.
Kerry Marshall once remarked: You cant be born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and grow up in South Central [Los Angeles] near the Black Panthers headquarters, and not feel like youve got some kind of social responsibility. You cant move to Watts in 1963 and not speak about it. That determined a lot of where my work was going to go. Thus, the motives of urban life are chief in many Marshalls works, for example, Our Town 1995, acrylic and collage on un stretched canvas; 100 x 124 inches, Collection of the artist. , or 7 am Sunday Morning, 2003, acrylic on canvas, [ 1 ] Courtesy of the artist and the Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.
In his series of paintings and sculptures named "Souvenir" Kerry James Marshall praises publicly and expresses his respect to the Civil Rights movement. His mammoth printing stamps feature such bold slogans, as for example - Black Power! or Black Beautiful! Also the artist paints ordinary African-American citizens who have become angels by keeping domestic order all the time in middle-class living rooms which are populated with ghosts. These ghosts are well-known stars and heroes of the era of 60 ies: Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. , John F. Kennedy, and others.
Marshalls "Rythm Most" is a comic book created for the people of the twenty-first century, where ancient African sculptures contrast cyberspace elite and its likes of all artificial and plastic. In this way, the artist warns his contemporaries that they, like this cyberspace elite, can loose their touch with nature and traditions. All in all, Kerry James Marshalls style in paintings, public projects, and installations is based on a wide range of art historical references. Thus, in particular, the works of Marshall address elegiac portraiture, especially, Egyptian funerary portraits; also there are some traditions borrowed from medieval and early renaissance. Additionally, the artist frequently uses some particular kinds of American style of painting, for example, the element of gesture application, graffiti, abstract painting in the back, and so on. It is notable that a striking feature of Marshalls paintings is his emphasis on the tone of black skin of his characters.
Kerry James Marshall explains it in the following way: If you assume the idea of blackness as being somehow negative, then you might react that way to them [figures] when you first see them, and might be blind to the subtleties, the subtleties of character that I try to develop in all of the figures. In Marshalls painting, black figures are rhetorical. Marshall adds: They are literally and rhetorically black in the same way that we describe ourselves as black people in America; we use that extreme position to designate ourselves in contrast to a white power structure of the country or the white mainstream. The painter is determined to participate in general dialogue about art-making and not to leave behind that kind of black representation. Kerry James Marshall sadly remarks that many black artists want to get involved into the mainstream, but, when images are presented by black people, the aesthetic value of their work slips out of the discussion and the matter collapses simply into social and political issues. That is why, holds the painter, we have so many black artists who do not have chance to exhibit their works until February (when Black History Month starts).
Consequently, Kerry Marshall believes that our society needs to get rid of the stereotypes concerning blackness as a color mostly negatively associated. And this is the reason, why the painter stresses on black and colors all his figures in black. His paintings seem to be appealing to the public: Look! Black people are also nice and attractive!
In addition to his views on social position of black people, Kerry Marshall has developed his own aesthetic and philosophical theories about blackness. He meditates on the notion of blackness and puts forward the idea that black color, being equal with other colors, can be beautiful. So, everything black should not be taken as ugly or unpleasant: just to propose the notion that just as blackness is apparent, their [blacks] beauty can also be apparent in their blackness. The painter tries to create the stereotype of beauty of black opposing in this way the stereotype of whites beauty.
Thus, all the characters of Marshall are confident of their extreme blackness and not ashamed of their appearance. This is a kind of coolness and challenge to society, as artist noted. To be able to be proud of ones looks, no matter what color or forms one possess, - it is a certain kind of outlook and toughness, Marshall concludes. This is similar to the idea that world is just like people can perceive it. That is why the concept of beauty has some relativity to ones subjective mind. The problem of negative blackness can be eliminated as soon as people are able to see nice and beautiful blackness.
Notwithstanding ones black color of skin, one can be kind or wicked, smart or stupid, just the same as white people have. So, Kerry Marshall teaches his audience to see and to judge behind the limits of appearance. For instance, the artist characterizes one of his characters in the following way: And those little stars, those little lights you see, kind of hovering around his face -- these are sort of points of brilliance where you see the kind of luster, the shine, the sparkle. It's that kind of twinkle in the eye, a reference to a kind of gleaming beauty, you know, a twinkling, sparkling kind of beauty. That's what those things represent. As a result of his pro-black policy, Kerry Marshall created the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: One True Thing, Meditations on Black Aesthetics, in which, as critics claimed, he opens a dialogue on the issue of black aesthetics, the practice of being an artist, the question of integration versus assimilation, and notions of race.
This exhibition was displayed from June 20 through September 5, 2004 in the Baltimore Museum of Art. The works that were included in Kerry James Marshall: One True Thing, Meditations on Black Aesthetics renewed publics attention to the term black aesthetics, which constitutes the core of James Marshalls philosophy. The term itself appeared in 1960 s, when the civil rights and Black Power movements grew up. These movements aimed to fight for black rights, to foster cultural pride of blacks, and to develop strategies for African Americans to participate more actively in the mainstream of U. S.
Naturally, such socio-political coloring determined the works exhibited in the Baltimore Museum. The unique black expression, layering of language, political and social realities, historical style were observed by the critics in the following pictures: Memento # 5, a glittery 9 by 13 -foot canvas, a picture that commemorated the leaders of the civil rights movement: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. , Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X. 7 am Sunday Morning, a monumental 10 - by 18 -foot painting, which presented the view of a street scene on the South Side of Chicago when it was interrupted by the glare of...
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Research essay sample on Kerry James Marshall Our Town Part 1
