My brother David and his wife Kim were in town, and we went to see the Kerry James Marshall retrospective at the Met Breuer. It was a great show, and a good example of how a large-scale retrospective can have a much stronger impact than just a few exhibited paintings. Marshall is both brilliant in his ideas and virtuosic in painting skills. To the extent that the work of any artist can be reduced to a few sentences, Marshall's project is about the insertion of the African-American experience into the broader tropes of art history. While I am normally adverse to the use ideological constructs, in this case, the sophistication of Marshall's conceptions and the skill with which he creates them is dazzling. The paintings are fascinating to look at, filled with visual ideas that are subtle and intriguing. And he uses all kinds of other materials worked into the texture, even gold glitter (!).
These photos from the Met's website don't really do justice to the work; not only are most of the paintings really large (10-12 feet wide or bigger) so the fine details of the work are not visible in these photos, but all the subtle gradations of black simply don't come through.
The was a very nice component of the show called "Kerry James Marshall Selects", where Marshall was given the opportunity to go though the Met's collections and pick out works that he wanted to be shown with his retrospective. It was a fascinatingly diverse and revelatory selection which resonated wonderfully with the show. It also showed what the Met can do that not many other museums can do. A great exhibit!
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