Overview

Accompanying the largest UK survey to date of work by the legendary Chicago-based figurative painter. In his lyrical figurative paintings and murals, the internationally acclaimed artist Kerry James Marshall HON RA (b. 1955) places Black faces and bodies front and centre in compositions founded on the principles of Western picture-making. He uses memories, art-historical styles and genres and contemporary culture and science fiction to comment on the past, celebrate everyday life and imagine a more optimistic future. This book records the largest UK survey of the artist's work to date, and includes some 70 images, among them a new series of paintings and Marshall's commemorative sculpture Wake, which evolves every time it is exhibited. Text in English, French and German. AUTHORS: Benjamin Buchloh was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2005 to 2021. Aria Dean is an American artist, critic and curator. Until 2021, she served as Curator and Editor of Rhizome. Darby English is Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. Mark Godfrey was a curator at Tate Modern, London, from 2007 to 2021. Madeleine Grynsztejn is Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Fabrice Hergott is Director of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Cathérine Hug is Curator of Twentieth-century Art at Kunsthaus Zürich. Nikita Sena Quarshie is a London-based researcher, writer and curator. Rose Thompson is Assistant Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Rebecca Zorach is Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art and Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston. SELLING POINTS: . The largest UK survey of Kerry James Marchall's work to date, with a new series of paintings made especially for the exhibition . Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy 20 September 2025 - 18 January 2026 160 colour illustrations

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9781915815125

Table of Contents

Reviews

The RA's exhibition Kerry James Marshall’s The Histories was given a 5 star review by The Guardian. - The Guardian This stunning catalogue of the major Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, surveys the American artist’s powerful response to the Western Art “great style” history-painting tradition. While registering his artistic ancestry, from Giotto’s Renaissance frescoes to Picasso’s Guernica (1937), Marshall situates the historically absent and marginalised Black figure at the centre of his striking, large-scale compositions, and at the heart of his narratives. "" - The Art Newspaper The London Review of Books takes a look at Kerry James Marshall. - London Review of Books

The RA's exhibition Kerry James Marshall’s The Histories was given a 5 star review by The Guardian. - The Guardian

Author Information

Mark Godfrey was a curator at Tate Modern, London, from 2007 to 2021. Benjamin Buchloh was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2005 to 2021. Aria Dean is an American artist, critic and curator. Until 2021, she served as Curator and Editor of Rhizome. Darby English is Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. Madeleine Grynsztejn is Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Fabrice Hergott is Director of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Cathérine Hug is Curator of Twentieth-century Art at Kunsthaus Zürich. Nikita Sena Quarshie is a London-based researcher, writer and curator. Rebecca Zorach is Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art and Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston.

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