Kerry James Marshall, The Histories*

The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris presents from September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027 the first exhibition in France devoted to the American artist Kerry James Marshall (born 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, United States).

Organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and in collaboration with Zurich’s Kunsthaus, the Kerry James Marshall: The Histories* exhibition presents seventy works, including eight paintings newly created for the exhibition.

Kerry James Marshall is known for his monumental compositions that place Black people at the center, often elevating the ordinary to epic scale. By placing these figures within archetypes of art history, the artist invites viewers to measure the power of their presence. Marshall addresses themes such as the forced Middle Passage of Africans enslaved for transport to the Americas, and the heritage of Black American mobilizations such as the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power, without ever directly depicting violence and alienation. His work draws inspiration from both the established canon of Western art history and from other forms of visual expression drawn from popular culture, notably nineteenth‑century French painting, contemporary culture, Afrofuturism, comics and science fiction.

Designed with the artist’s support, the exhibition traces more than four decades of his career. It features numerous cycles of work that unfold mainly in painting but also across prints, drawings and a sculpture, drawn from museums and private collections in North America and Europe.

The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris highlights the work of Kerry James Marshall, continuing a series of monographic exhibitions in France dedicated to Black American artists, notably Kara Walker (2007) and Jean‑Michel Basquiat (2010). Marshall works in series and cycles, as evidenced by the exhibition’s chronological‑thematic organization, which presents eleven groups of works created between 1980 and today.

Exhibition route

The exhibition opens with the artist’s early mature works from the 1980s, such as Invisible Man (1986), inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel of the same name (1952). This section highlights Marshall’s interest in depicting Black figures, while raising questions about their representation in art history and about the people and elements that have been excluded. The artist’s radical approach, which uses a range of black pigments mixed with other colors, influences how viewers perceive his figures.

The second gallery presents large canvases addressing the history of the Middle Passage, an expression referring to the Atlantic crossing of Africans captured to be sold into slavery.

The exhibition continues with the presentation of monumental works illustrating scenes of contemporary life, set in such environments as hair salons and beauty parlors, parks and outdoor spaces. By referencing artists such as Édouard Manet, Gustave Caillebotte, Georges Seurat and other painters of modern life, Marshall addresses the absence of large‑scale images depicting the daily life of Black people in Western art history.

The Souvenirs series (1997–1998) takes as its starting point the American Civil Rights Movement. The paintings of the Vignette series (2003–2014) depict Black couples in a style that draws on both Rococo painting and the aesthetics of American greeting cards.

One of the works in the exhibition is Wake, a cumulatively assembled sculpture created in 2003 and decorated with new medallions each time it is shown.

A section brings together imaginary portraits of Black historical figures such as Scipio Moorhead and Harriet Tubman, and asks how historical portraits can be created in the absence of archives and prior representations of the people concerned.

The final galleries trace the evolution of Kerry James Marshall’s artistic approach, revisiting the icons of Western classical painting. The works from the 2000s to the 2010s notably highlight Marshall’s long‑standing interest in the disciplines taught within institutions. One of the pieces is The Academy (2012), in which a male model from a life drawing class raises a fist in the Black Power salute.

The exhibition closes with a series of new works. These eight paintings explore lesser‑known episodes of African history. Several of them focus on the transatlantic slave trade and highlight the role played by certain Africans in the sale of enslaved people to European merchants.

Exhibition catalogue

The exhibition catalogue, published in French by Paris Musées and in English by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, is a comprehensive publication on the artist, covering nearly half a century of his work. The Paris Musées edition is also the first French‑language publication dedicated to him. It includes illustrations of all the works in the exhibition and gathers an essay by Mark Godfrey, accompanied by six essays by Aria Dean, Darby English, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Catherine Hug, Nikita Sena Quarshie and Rebecca Zorach, as well as an interview between Kerry James Marshall and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh.

Exhibition organized by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris / Paris Musées and Kunsthaus Zürich. The exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, ran from 20 September 2025 to 18 January 2026, and the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich runs from 27 February to 16 August 2026.

*The narratives