Kerry James Marshall and the work histories between Zurich and Paris
Published on 08/22/2026 at 10:49 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Kerry James Marshall has built a practice around dense, serial depictions of Black life and history in the United States. In recent years his traveling exhibition The Histories, organized by the Royal Academy of Arts, has linked these work groups across London, Zürich and Paris as the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris outlines.
Series at the heart of The Histories
The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris describes Kerry James Marshall: The Histories as the first exhibition in France devoted to the artist, presenting around seventy works, including eight new paintings made specifically for the show. The exhibition follows earlier stages at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from September 20, 2025 to January 18, 2026 and at Kunsthaus Zürich from February 27 to August 16, 2026, with the Paris run scheduled for September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027 according to the museum.
A contextual essay from David Zwirner highlights that The Histories continues Marshall’s long-term focus on how images construct narratives of Black presence, expanding questions from his series Rythm Mastr, housing scenes and school paintings into larger historical tableaux. The gallery notes that the survey is among his most comprehensive in Europe, giving sustained room to multi-part sequences and recurring characters.
Work series and retrospective arc
Marshall’s work since the 1990s has unfolded in distinct series, from domestic scenes in projects like Vignette to urban public space pictures and comics-inspired narratives in Rythm Mastr as summarized in his curriculum vitae published by Jack Shainman Gallery. The CV lists recent group exhibitions such as Destiny is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles and From Now: A Collection in Context at the Studio Museum in Harlem, which have included key paintings and works on paper.
Culture Type stresses that the traveling format of The Histories allows Marshall’s serial strategies to be read against different institutional contexts and audiences, with new works exploring roles of Black Africans in the transatlantic slave trade incorporated into the survey. In this perspective, the show connects earlier series to recent historical canvases, underscoring how Marshall uses repetition, variation and sequence to build complex narratives.
Background and news on Kerry James Marshall
Further reporting on Kerry James Marshall’s exhibitions, auction results and institutional projects is collected in the AD HOC NEWS archive.
The work core across media
Marshall is best known for large-scale figurative painting, often using deep black pigments to render Black skin, but he also works in collage, sculpture, photography and comics formats as noted in institutional texts around The Histories. The Royal Academy of Arts frames his practice as an investigation into how Black figures have historically been omitted from canonical painting and how reintroducing them shifts art-historical narratives.
His key work groups include mural-like paintings of public housing, school scenes and family interiors, as well as the ongoing Rythm Mastr project that mixes superhero vernacular and city streets, and projects engaging museum display conventions. Across these series, Marshall emphasizes everyday life, historical memory and structural visibility, combining graphic clarity with layered symbolism.
Where the artist stands now
Against this backdrop, Kerry James Marshall’s practice currently centers on consolidating and extending his major series in dialogue with European museum surveys such as The Histories, while continuing to appear in significant group exhibitions in the United States.
Key facts on Kerry James Marshall
- Artist: Kerry James Marshall
- Medium / Genre: Painting and mixed media (figurative, conceptual)
- Born: 1955, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- Place(s) of practice: Chicago-based practice with long-term work in the United States
- Active since: Early 1980s, with wider recognition following major shows from the 1990s
- Key work groups: Rythm Mastr, public housing paintings, school paintings, domestic interior series such as Vignette
- Current/last exhibition: Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy of Arts, London (September 20, 2025-January 18, 2026); Kunsthaus Zürich (February 27-August 16, 2026); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (September 18, 2026-January 24, 2027)
- Major collections: Works by Marshall are held by institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem and other leading public collections, as indicated by recent exhibition listings.
- Awards: Widely exhibited and critically recognized; specific major prizes are not foregrounded in the recent museum and gallery materials consulted.
- Next date: European presentation of The Histories at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris scheduled from September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027.
Frequently asked questions about Kerry James Marshall
Where can Kerry James Marshall’s work be seen in Europe?
Marshall’s survey exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories has been shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and at Kunsthaus Zürich, and is scheduled for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris from September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027.
Which work series feature prominently in The Histories?
According to the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and gallery coverage, the exhibition includes around seventy works, with major series such as housing and school paintings and the narrative project Rythm Mastr, plus eight new paintings made for the show.
How does Kerry James Marshall describe his focus on Black representation?
Institutional texts from the Royal Academy of Arts and David Zwirner emphasize that Marshall addresses the historic absence of Black figures in Western painting by placing them centrally in complex compositions, thereby reworking the visual histories of everyday and historical scenes.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
