Kerry James Marshall

Artist Kerry James Marshall in his studio, Chicago.

"It’s a sunny weekday afternoon in April, and Kerry James Marshall is showing me around his lived-in studio on a quaint residential stretch of Chicago’s South Side, taking a break from fine-tuning a handful of canvases. The artist — who is renowned for his painted musings on art-historical oversights and for taking on the African American experience as both subject and cause — is an affable presence in person. He is sweet, confident, convivial, and eager to discuss the ways in which he’s approaching an ambitious new body of work.

The studio is located in a contemporary carriage house of sorts. A lofted office area is stocked with art tomes, sketching supplies, and comic books in progress (he has published several), as well as the artist’s enormous stash of Barbie-style dolls. The dolls are off-brand, for the most part, procured from local secondhand shops; the more expressive, more flexible models were special-ordered from Hong Kong. Each figure sports an intricate original hairstyle and clothing handmade by Marshall and his assistant. He uses them primarily to study the folds in the clothing and the contours of the hair as he paints. He sometimes detaches a head, affixing it to a mini-stake and paints from that alone. It’s easier than relying on models, he says, though he senses the irony in using these 12-inch dolls as the basis for his figures, many of which defy the ridiculously lithe and buxom form. “I don’t want my paintings to look like these people. I would be in trouble if they looked like these people,” he insists. “I just use them for reference — for angle and for light.” When it comes to everything else, he adds, “I am always working against type.”

Downstairs, the somewhat narrow main space is lined with Marshall’s new paintings. A massive canvas depicting the goings-on within a green-and-pink-hued African American hair salon is pinned to the center of one wall. In typical Marshall fashion it’s a genre scene of epic proportions, with chic black women and children posing, preening, and interacting among their own cultural signifiers (a poster advertising Chris Ofili at Tate Modern, an LP of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”). There is also a strange anamorphic rendering of Princess Aurora from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty hovering near the floor.
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(bron: blouinartinfo, tekst: Rachel Wolff, foto's: Kendall Karmanian)


(bron: Valley News)

"Kerry James Marshall schilderijen en zo" is de grote overzichtstentoonstelling in het M HKA in Anterpen. Te zien tot zondag 2 februari. (hk)

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