Kerry James Marshall and the work histories between Zurich and Paris
Published on 08/29/2026 at 12:24 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Kerry James Marshall has built one of the most coherent bodies of work in contemporary painting, centered on Black figures and their visibility within art history. His ongoing exhibition cycle Kerry James Marshall: The Histories connects Zurich and Paris and encapsulates more than four decades of practice, as Kunsthaus Zürich and Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris outline.
The survey exhibition cycle
The exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories is described by Kunsthaus Zürich and David Zwirner as Marshall's largest exhibition to date outside the United States, and the first major survey of his work in the German-speaking world. It brings together a comprehensive selection of key paintings, drawings, prints and at least one sculpture, alongside new canvases conceived specifically for the project.
Structured as a traveling survey originated by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the cycle ran in the Royal Academy's main galleries from September 20, 2025 to January 18, 2026, then moved to Kunsthaus Zürich from February 27 to August 16, 2026, before its announced presentation at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris from September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027. Each venue maintains the core structure while adjusting emphasis and loans to local audiences.
Work series and retrospective focus
In Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris describes the exhibition as the first presentation in France devoted to the Birmingham-born artist, featuring around seventy works and eight new paintings made especially for the show. The museum highlights Marshall's focus on monumental compositions that place Black people at the center of the image field, often elevating ordinary scenes to an almost epic scale.
The Paris curatorial text stresses that Marshall works in series and cycles, with eleven chrono-thematic groups spanning from the 1980s to the present. It notes early works such as Invisible Man (1986), which respond to Ralph Ellison's novel, extended canvases on the "Middle Passage" of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, the Souvenirs series (1997–1998) tied to civil rights history, and the Vignette paintings (2003–2014) that borrow from rococo and American greeting card aesthetics.
All news and background on Kerry James Marshall
Further reporting on Kerry James Marshall's exhibitions, market presence and institutional holdings can be found in the AD HOC NEWS archive, with updates as new stages of The Histories and other projects unfold.
The work core and series logic
Across the eleven groups outlined by Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Marshall's practice revolves around how Black presence enters the canon of painting and visual culture. A key technical decision runs through much of the work: figures built from a spectrum of mixed black pigments, sometimes with additional colors, which alter how viewers perceive volume, light and facial expression.
The Paris text singles out large-scale scenes set in beauty salons, barbershops, parks and domestic interiors, many of them connected to the well-known painting School of Beauty, School of Culture. In these works Marshall references artists such as Édouard Manet, Gustave Caillebotte and Georges Seurat, effectively inserting Black everyday life into the pictorial structures historically used to represent European modernity.
Cycles from civil rights to Black Power
The Souvenirs paintings from 1997–1998 use memorial and commemorative motifs related to the American civil rights movement, filling domestic spaces with text and iconography that name key events and figures. Later Vignette works show Black couples engaged in intimate scenes and stylized romance, formally combining rococo excess with the sentimental imagery of greeting cards.
Another axis of the exhibition centers on imagined portraits of historical Black figures such as Scipio Moorhead and Harriet Tubman. Here Marshall confronts the problem of how to paint individuals for whom little or no visual archive exists, constructing likenesses that both acknowledge that absence and propose new images into public memory.
Sculptural and institutional motifs
Among the works described by the Paris museum, the cumulative sculpture Wake (2003) is singled out as a major piece. The sculpture gains new medallions each time it is exhibited, creating a layered physical record that mirrors the way Marshall adds episodes to his painted histories.
Institutionally focused works include The Academy (2012), where a life-drawing model in an art school studio raises a fist in a Black Power salute. The piece locks the codes of academic training and political gesture together, pointing to how institutions both shape and constrain artistic bodies and narratives.
Eight new paintings on African histories
For the Paris presentation, Marshall developed eight new paintings that explore lesser-known episodes of African history, particularly around the transatlantic slave trade. According to Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, several of these canvases concentrate on the role of some African actors in selling enslaved people to European merchants, expanding the field of responsibility beyond the usual focus on European buyers.
The museum emphasizes that, even in these works, Marshall avoids direct depictions of violence and alienation. Instead, compositional choices, symbolism and narrative structure carry the weight of historical trauma while maintaining space for viewers to think through complicity and accountability.
Position in collections and institutions
The Paris press information lists works in major public collections, including Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum in Cambridge, and other North American and European holdings. These placements reflect how Marshall's canvases have entered core museum narratives over the past two decades, aligning with his stated ambition to redraw art-historical visibility.
Gallery and institutional biographies, such as David Zwirner's artist page, additionally reference the traveling survey and underline its role in consolidating Marshall's position as one of the most influential contemporary painters working today. The combination of a multi-venue retrospective, new commissions and deep collection penetration marks a mature phase of recognition.
How the artist works
Kerry James Marshall works primarily in painting, frequently on large unstretched canvases and PVC panels, with acrylic paint, glitter and other materials deployed to disrupt conventional surface expectations. Across series such as Invisible Man, Souvenirs, Vignette and institutionally focused works like The Academy, he systematically revisits how Black figures appear, or fail to appear, in art history and popular image culture.
Where the artist stands now
Against this backdrop, Kerry James Marshall stands as a central figure in institutional and curatorial discussions of contemporary painting, with the multi-venue cycle Kerry James Marshall: The Histories framing his work across London, Zurich and Paris and anchoring his position in international museum programming.
Key facts on Kerry James Marshall
- Artist: Kerry James Marshall
- Medium / Genre: Painting (figurative, conceptual), works on paper, sculpture
- Born: 1955, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice based in the United States, widely exhibited in Europe and North America
- Active since: Early 1980s, with mature work groups from around 1980 onward
- Key work groups: Invisible Man, Souvenirs, Vignette, institutional works including The Academy, sculptural cycle Wake
- Current/last exhibition: Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy of Arts, London (September 20, 2025–January 18, 2026); Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (February 27–August 16, 2026); Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris (announced for September 18, 2026–January 24, 2027)
- Major collections: Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama), Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum (Cambridge, MA), additional North American and European collections cited in the Paris exhibition text
- Awards: The Paris and Zurich materials position Marshall among the most influential contemporary painters, with recognition reflected in major institutional surveys and catalog essays, rather than a single headline prize in the current cycle.
- Next date: The survey Kerry James Marshall: The Histories is scheduled to open at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris on September 18, 2026, according to the museum.
Frequently asked questions about Kerry James Marshall
Where can I see Kerry James Marshall's work in a survey format?
The multi-venue exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories has been staged at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and Kunsthaus Zürich, with a Paris presentation at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris announced as the next stop in the cycle.
Which work series are central in The Histories exhibition?
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris notes eleven chrono-thematic groups, including early works like Invisible Man, the civil rights-linked Souvenirs, the rococo-inflected Vignette series, and institutional pieces such as The Academy, alongside the cumulative sculpture Wake.
How does Kerry James Marshall redefine Black representation in painting?
Through monumental compositions and a carefully calibrated palette of black pigments, Marshall centers Black figures in scenes ranging from everyday interiors to historical allegories, explicitly addressing the gaps and exclusions in Western art history and visual culture, as detailed by Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris.
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.
