The Epic and the Everyday:
Kerry James Marshall’s
Black Narratives
Kerry James Marshall
Untitled (Exquisite Corpse Asian Carp), 2022
Kerry James Marshall stands among the most influential artists of our time. In anticipation of the Royal Academy of Arts’ landmark survey – the most significant presentation of his work ever staged in Europe – this three-part online course offers an unmissable opportunity to engage with Marshall’s practice, politics and visual language. Discover the exhibition here.
Led by two of the exhibition curators Mark Godfrey & Nikita Sena Quarshie, the programme provides rare insights into the making of this groundbreaking exhibition and the cultural, historical and aesthetic contexts that inform Marshall’s work.
For over four decades, Marshall has challenged the conventions of Western art, reclaiming space for Black figures and narratives with paintings that merge the grandeur of history painting, the intimacy of portraiture and the immediacy of comics and muralism. His work insists on the presence, beauty and complexity of Black life, confronting historical erasures while imagining more expansive and just futures.
This course is designed for students, educators, curators, collectors and cultural practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of Marshall’s work and its wider significance within global art histories.
Course details
Dates:
Monday 8 September
Monday 22 September
Monday 29 September
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm (BST)
Format: Online via Zoom
Session 1: Kerry James Marshall and the History of Painting
Kerry James Marshall, born in Birmingham Alabama in 1955, is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of our time. His figurative paintings, which unapologetically centre Black subjects, reflect a deep engagement with the history of art.
This opening session introduces Marshall’s expansive practice and his dialogue with Western painting traditions from portraiture and landscape to history painting, a genre historically used to depict Biblical, mythical and political narratives. We will explore how Marshall reclaims and reworks these forms to produce powerful paintings that insist on the presence of Black figures in narratives where they were long erased.
Session 2: Black as Colour, Rhetoric and Aesthetic
Marshall is renowned for his use of black paint to render his subjects, an approach that functions both literally and rhetorically. Rather than aiming for naturalistic skin tones, his technique challenges viewers to reflect on Black absence and presence within the histories of art and society.
This session examines how Marshall’s approach engages with earlier efforts to forge a Black aesthetic and how his work reframes ideas of representation, visibility and power.
Session 3: Revisiting Africa
At the heart of the Royal Academy survey lies a major new series of paintings created specifically for the exhibition. These works grapple with complex histories, including African involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
This final session explores how Marshall addresses these difficult narratives through his distinctive visual language. We will consider his first engagements with the history of the Middle Passage and the varied techniques and narrative strategies he has developed throughout his career to navigate these histories with nuance and power.
As soon as you sign up, you will have instant access to the learning platform. Resources will be added shortly and you will receive an email notification once they are available. All sessions will take place online using Zoom, and a Zoom link will be sent to you in advance of the course start date with further instructions.
TUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
Nikita Sena Quarshie is a writer and researcher based in London, by way of Ghana. With a background in human rights, her work explores how art and creative practices expose oppression and suggest routes to liberation. Her writing has appeared in gal-dem, Bad Form, Untitled: Voices and EYESORE. As a curatorial resident at be’kech in Berlin, she facilitated workshops that used collage and painting to explore socio-political themes. She has also co-curated programming with Autograph ABP London, exploring artivism and transnational solidarity.
Nikita is an alum of New Curators, a year-long paid curatorial training programme in London, and is interested in building spaces that reject oppression and inertia in favour of pleasure, experimentation and poetic revolution
Mark Godfrey is a curator and critic based in London, and the Director of New Curators. From 2007 to 2021 he was Senior Curator at Tate Modern, where he curated and co-curated landmark exhibitions including Soul of a Nation, and retrospectives of Sigmar Polke, Roni Horn, Franz West, and Gerhard Richter. Beyond Tate, he has curated exhibitions by Christopher Williams, David Hammons, R.H. Quaytman, and Laura Owens. He is the recipient of the 2015 Absolut Prize for Art Writing and co-edited The Soul of a Nation Reader.
Supporters
This course is proudly sponsored by Simmons & Simmons.
Through their support, we are able to make this programme accessible to a wider audience.
Simmons & Simmons is an international law firm with an extensive art collection. Their aim is to provide emerging artists with opportunities to present their work beyond traditional gallery spaces, while giving staff and clients the chance to engage with the conversations shaping contemporary art practice. Art is a powerful space for vital dialogue at the forefront of social, cultural, and political change, and as a responsible business, they are committed to engaging with those conversations.
Being part of the community of artists, galleries, and art programmes is a privilege — one that Simmons & Simmons is proud to support.
Find out more here: art.simmons-simmons.com
Acknowledgement
Black Blossoms would like to thank New Curators for their engagement.
New Curators is a paid, year-long curatorial training programme based in London for 10–12 aspiring curators of contemporary art from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Training as a curator is costly, and breaking into the field without connections is tough — no surprise the industry is often seen as elitist and lacking diversity.
New Curators is committed to changing that by ensuring a wider range of voices shape our art institutions, making the art world more reflective and relevant. The programme equips talented individuals with the training they deserve, while giving employers the skilled, dynamic and diverse curators the art world needs.
Find out more here: www.newcurators.org
