Artists of Black History Month: Kerry James Marshall
In 2018, American painter Kerry James Marshall rewrote art history by reportedly becoming the highest-paid Black American artist. His Past Times painting from 1997 was purchased by rapper Sean Combs or P Diddy for a record-setting USD 21 million at Sotheby’s New York. The event was historic and a long-overdue milestone in Black American art history: The New York Times described Past Times as a “monumental painting by Kerry James Marshall with a narrative centered on Black experiences.”Who is Kerry James Marshall, and why is his work so significant? Read on.Kerry James Marshall with one of his paintings. Image by Jurgen Schulzki.Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama. He later moved to Los Angeles, California. He is the second of three sons to a postal worker father and a homemaker mother. As a young boy, Marshall watched his father buy and fix broken watches from pawn shops. Marshall’s home in Los Angeles was close to the Black Panther Party’s headquarters, which instilled social responsibility in him at an early age.In his childhood and adolescence, Marshall was exposed to communal riots and violence relating to the Civil Rights movement. He witnessed the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing (1963) in Birmingham followed by the Watt Riots (1965) in Los Angeles. He was also actively involved in the Black Panther movement during his college days. The episodes of civil unrest triggered him to render powerful, stirring images with thought-provoking themes.Marshall started to draw under the guidance of Social Realist painter Charles White while in high school. At the start of his career, he created small abstract paintings and collages, some of which were displayed in 1985 at the Koplin Gallery in Los Angeles. In 1999, he created his own comic book series, Rythm Mastr, as an ode to superheroes. He