Release Date: November 5, 2012
Kerry James Marshall's First Solo Exhibition in Washington, DC On View at the National Gallery of Art
June 28–December 7, 2013
Kerry James Marshall, Great America, 1994
acrylic and collage on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 2011
Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art announced today plans to host the city's first solo exhibition of the work of American artist Kerry James Marshall. On view from June 28 through December 7, 2013, In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall will present some 30 works, including the Gallery's own Great America (1994), as well as provide a context for understanding this particular painting and its powerful imagery within the broader arc of the artist's career.
In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall marks the sixth in a series of Tower installations focusing on developments in art since midcentury.
"Kerry James Marshall is one of the most exciting and celebrated painters currently working in the United States. His art is a reflection on African American history and the reverberations of the past in contemporary life," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. "We are honored to host the first solo exhibition of his work in Washington, and we are grateful to lenders, both public and private, for parting with their works for several months."
Exhibition Organization and Support
The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
This exhibition is sponsored by Dr. Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt and Cari and Michael Sacks. Additional support is provided by The Tower Project of the National Gallery of Art.
Exhibition Highlights
The exhibition will be centered on Great America (1994), which depicts two couples in a small boat exiting an amusement park "Tunnel of Love." A seemingly innocent scene of middle-class leisure, the painting is filled with troubling details such as the appearance of spooks in the dark tunnel, a bobbing head of a man in the water, and an abstract shape painted in thick brushstrokes pointing at a woman's head like a rifle. Great America is one of several works in the exhibition that depicts water. In Plunge (1992), a woman dives into a suburban pool identified as "Atlantic Ocean." Another figure swims in the water and a toy model clipper ship floats in the pool.
As a group, these paintings evoke the Middle Passage of slaves from West Africa to the colonies and give rise to themes of immigration, class mobility, and aspiration central to American life. The exhibition will also feature the powerful painting Portrait of Nat Turner with the Head of his Master (2011) and a selection of the artist's preparatory drawings for Great America and other works.
Kerry James Marshall
Born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, Kerry James Marshall moved with his family to Watts, Los Angeles, in 1963. He was educated at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and currently lives in Chicago. Marshall is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, an NEA Visual Art Fellowship, and many other awards. He has had one-person exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; the Vancouver Art Gallery;, the Renaissance Society in Chicago; and the Vienna Secession.
Exhibition Curator and Related Activities
The exhibition curator is James Meyer, associate curator in the department of modern art at the National Gallery of Art.
Meyer and Marshall will discuss the artist's work on Wednesday, June 26, at 3:30 p.m. in the East Building Auditorium. The event is free of charge and seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis.
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