Born in Alabama, artist Kerry James Marshall spent his formative years in Los Angeles before moving to New York and eventually settling in Chicago. For more than four decades, Marshall has employed painting, drawing, and collage to challenge the omission of Black figures within the art historical canon. His work embraces a more cohesive understanding of histories than has typically been made visible in museums. A hallmark of Marshall’s figurative paintings is his use of black pigments—including Carbon, Ivory, and Mars—to depict Black figures, a visual and symbolic device which renders the subjects unmistakably, and unapologetically, Black. When Frustration Threatens Desire, 1990, and Black Painting, 2003–2006, are two examples of the artist’s work in Glenstone’s collection. Spanning different moments in the artist’s career, the paintings are infused with explicit and discreet historical references ranging from Haitian religious iconography to the Black Panther Party.

–Katana Doescher, from the Glenstone Field Guide