Episode #030: Kerry James Marshall discusses his relationship to museums during the installation of the exhibition "Black Romantic" at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, which features five paintings from the artists "Vignettes" (2003-07) series.

Marshall confronts art institutions, and the canon of Western Art in general, about the unignorable absence of Black artists. “We take it for granted that this is just the way art history is structured…” says Marshall. “They [the artists featured in museums] are all Europeans. And when do other people start to come into the field? Well, only after they have been dominated and colonized by Europeans.”

Kerry James Marshalls work is based on a broad range of art-historical references, from Renaissance painting to folk art. A striking aspect of his paintings is the emphatically black skin tone of his figures, a development the artist says emerged from an investigation into the invisibility of blacks in America and the unnecessarily negative connotations associated with darkness.

Learn more about the artist at:
https://art21.org/artist/kerry-james-marshall/

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller and Nick Ravich. Camera & Sound: Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Artwork Courtesy: Kerry James Marshall. Thanks: Jack Shainman Gallery.

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