Editorial

Kerry James Marshall's Question

A Black man sits with arms crossed on a tall drafters chair in front of a large painting of people in a salon. His arms are crossed but has a large smile on his face, which sports a salt and pepper beard

Kerry James Marshall

Photo: Kendall Karmanian

Prior to the opening of Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, get to know the artist and the questions he’s pursuing in his art.

What’s the point of making artwork . . . if it doesn’t . . . become influential or meaningful to the progress of somebody else?

—Kerry James Marshall

Chicago Magazine

This week, Chicago Magazine released an in-depth interview with Kerry James Marshall that includes a question fundamental to his body of work: Where are all the black people? Missing from the most well-known paintings in the canon of Western art, this absence of both black artists and subjects is something Marshall has set out to change through his paintings. Read the article and listen to Marshall discuss the black identity in the video featured here.

In this painting, a woman painter holds a paint palette in front of a paint-by-numbers portrait. Her skin is as black as the as the solid black background; she stares confidently into our eyes.

View 35 years of Kerry James Marshall's work when Mastry opens April 23.

Kerry James Marshall: Mastry