Being an Artist; Kerry James Marshall

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I chose the clip above for Kerry James Marshall’s thoughts about how identifying as a Black artist is not a real choice, because only white artists are not burdened by the problems of race.

Then the paintings of Black artists in the ‘Being an Artist” video (above) led me to seek out more of Marshall’s paintings of Black artists (below). I found these works and almost 75 more were part of his 2017 exhibition ‘Mastry’. I also included the video interviews on ‘Mastry’, in which Marshall shares his strategies for contending with the “Old Masters” by learning what they knew, signing up as an art school grad to be part of the system that codified art, then figuring out how to project his representations and ideals for Black people within that system – showing his work at the same museums and galleries he had admired as a kid, in which no Black artists or subjects had been represented.

In ‘Process’ (above), Marshall talks about the portraits that have paint by number paintings in them (two shown above, one below) :

“The reason the painting behind the figure is a paint by number painting is that paint by number paintings are a system. It’s a system that allows everyone who wants to try to make a painting is allowed to make a painting like the one they already appreciate. But you can see there’s a kind of arbitrariness to the way the paint is being applied to the paint by number painting which means the subject has taken liberties with the way the system determines the way you represent within this already outlined and defined image – even of [how you represent] oneself.” – Kerry James Marshall

“‘Mastry’ (2017) is Kerry James Marshall’s first major retrospective in the United States, and includes nearly 80 paintings, all of which contain images of Black subjects going about their daily business, presented with utter equality and humanity. A deeply accomplished artist, who makes ravishing paintings, Marshall’s strategy was three fold. First, as a young artist he decided to paint only black figures. He was unequivocal in his pursuit of black beauty. His figures are an unapologetic ebony black, and they occupy the paintings with a sense of authority and belonging. Second, Marshall worked to make a wide variety of images populated with black people. This led him to make exquisite portraits, lush landscape paintings, everyday domestic interiors, and paintings that depict historical events, all featuring black subjects as if their activities were completely and utterly normal. Third, Marshall concentrated on painterly mastery as a fundamental strategy. By mastering the art of representational and figurative painting, during a period when neither was in vogue, Marshall produced a body of work that bestows beauty and dignity where it had long been denied. In his studio in Chicago, Marshall discusses his career, his strategies to circumvent institutional inequality, and his mission to diversify the cultural representations that are prioritized and historicized by the museum and art history canon.” (Source: MOCA)