Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories stands as the most expansive publication to date on one of the most influential artists of the last fifty years. More than a career overview, the book operates as a critical rethinking of Western art history, directly addressing the exclusions that have shaped its canon.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1955 and coming of age in Los Angeles during the Civil Rights and Black Power era, Marshall has consistently centred Black life within traditions that historically marginalised it. His large-scale, vividly coloured paintings place Black figures in domestic spaces, housing projects, salons, and public landscapes, deliberately reworking the conventions of European painting to reclaim its historical authority. The publication demonstrates how methodically Marshall has dismantled inherited visual languages and rebuilt them to assert presence, dignity, and complexity.
Richly illustrated, the book traces Marshall’s work across portraiture, allegory, and history painting. Iconic works referencing figures such as Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Olaudah Equiano are shown alongside scenes of contemporary Black life, reinforcing a continuity between historical struggle and the present. A newly presented body of work extends this project toward Africa, addressing narratives often sidelined in both Western and African art histories, and revealing the global scale of Marshall’s historical vision.
The essays situate Marshall’s practice within multiple intellectual frameworks. Mark Godfrey offers a detailed account of his artistic development, from early training under Charles White to his mature practice. Contributions by Aria Dean, Darby English, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Cathérine Hug, Nikita Sena Quarshie, and Rebecca Zorach expand the discussion, while an in-depth interview with Benjamin H. D. Buchloh allows Marshall to articulate his own thinking on representation, history, and artistic responsibility.
Importantly, the book addresses the full breadth of Marshall’s output. His Rythm Mastr comics receive sustained analysis, as do his public works, including the stained-glass commissions for Washington National Cathedral. These projects underscore his refusal to limit his practice to the gallery, instead engaging directly with public space and popular culture.
What emerges is an artist whose work functions as a counter-archive—paintings that record lives, histories, and experiences long absent from traditional narratives. Kerry James Marshall: The Histories argues persuasively for his central place within art history, positioning his work within a lineage that spans from the Renaissance to modernism while insisting on its radical specificity. At a time when representation and institutional power remain urgent questions, this publication feels both necessary and definitive.
