In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall: June 28 – December 8, 2013; East Building, Pod 3 Tower

The artist in his studio, Chicago. Photo courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

In the Tower Gallery with Kerry James Marshall

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Baptist, 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Gulf Stream, 2003, acrylic and glitter on canvas, Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2004

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Voyager, 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1993.1.2, © 2004 Kerry James Marshall c/o Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

All four sides of this square, unstretched canvas are lined with six gromets spaced along each edge. Blue-green water fills most of the stylized composition. Four people with black skin are squeezed into a small boat floating towards a carnival-like tunnel near the upper right corner. Cartoon ghosts loom at the tunnel entrance and a translucent, veil-like ghost hovers over the left half of the painting. The horizon comes almost to the top of the canvas, where white clouds float against an azure blue sky. A long, lemon-yellow line curls back and forth in a tight, curving zigzag pattern that widens out from a tiny sun setting on the horizon. A red cross on a white field floats near the upper left. At the top center, the word “WOW” appears in white letters within a crimson-red, bursting speech bubble with long trailing tendrils. Below the boat and against the water to our right, the word “FUN” has been overlaid with a white square so the tall, white letters are barely visible. The words “GREAT AMERICA” appear in a curling banner across the bottom half of the painting.

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Great America, 1994, acrylic and collage on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Collectors Committee

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Plunge, 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, Geri and Mason Haupt, © Kerry James Marshall. Photo courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Our Town, 1995, acrylic and collage on canvas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photography by Vancouver Art Gallery

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Bang, 1994, acrylic and collage on canvas, The Progressive Art Collection. Photo courtesy of The Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, Ohio

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Installation view of In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall. Left: Study for "Visible Means of Support: Monticello," 2008, acrylic on PVC panel, Rodney M. Miller Collection, courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Right: Study for "Visible Means of Support: Mount Vernon,” 2008, acrylic on PVC panel, Pat and Bill Wilson, San Francisco. Photo by Rob Shelley © 2013 National Gallery of Art, Washington

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

Portrait of Nat Turner with the Head of His Master, 2011, oil on canvas, Private collection

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

One of the most celebrated painters currently working in the United States, Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) has exhibited widely in both this country and around the world. His work explores the experiences of African Americans and the narratives of American history that have often excluded black people. Drawing upon the artist’s prodigious knowledge of art history and the African diaspora, his paintings combine figurative and abstract styles and multiple allusions, drawing from “high” and “low” sources.

In 2011, the National Gallery of Art acquired Marshall’s Great America (1994), a depiction of four figures in a boat exiting an amusement park Tunnel of Love. Including 10 paintings and more than 20 drawings, this exhibition—Marshall’s first in Washington—explores a sequence of works that both precede and follow Great America, affording a context for its powerful imagery. The dominant theme of these works is the transport of African slaves to America in the Middle Passage—the second or “middle” leg of the triangular trade of manufactured goods, slaves, and crops that transpired between Europe, Africa, and the American colonies from the colonial period until the middle of the 19th century. Marshall’s works explore the economic, sociological, and psychological aftermath of this foundational episode of US history. In his art, the past is never truly past: history exerts a constant, often unconscious pressure on the living.

In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall marks the sixth in a series of Tower installations focusing on developments in art since midcentury.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Sponsor: The exhibition is sponsored by Dr. Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt and Cari and Michael Sacks. Additional support is provided by The Tower Project.

Attendance: 66,748

Brochure: In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2013.

Image: Kerry James Marshall, Great America, 1994, acrylic and collage on canvas, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 2011.20.1