32 Kerry James Marshall Quotes for You to Enjoy

Kerry James Marshall

American Artist

Born: Oct 17, 1955

Always Art Black People White You

Related authors: Andy Warhol Jackson Pollock Jean-Michel Basquiat Jeff Koons Kehinde Wiley Keith Haring Yoko Ono

When you go to an art museum, the thing you're least likely to encounter is a picture of a black person. When it comes to ideas about art and about beauty, the black figure is absent. Kerry James Marshall

Art You Black Picture Beauty About Absent Ideas Likely Least Go Encounter Person Figure Thing Museum

People ask me why my figures have to be so black. There are a lot of reasons. First, the blackness is a rhetorical device. When we talk about ourselves as a people and as a culture, we talk about black history, black culture, black music. That's the rhetorical position we occupy. Kerry James Marshall

The lighter the skin, the more acceptable you are. The darker the skin, the more marginalised you become. I want to demonstrate that you can produce beauty in the context of a figure that has that kind of velvety blackness. It can be done. Kerry James Marshall

You Beauty Become Skin Kind Darker Blackness More Lighter Acceptable Context Demonstrate Done Want Produce Figure Marginalised

The revision of any kind of established model is always a political act. Kerry James Marshall

Political Kind Always Political Act Revision Model Any Established Act

For black people who are really dark - and a lot of black people were averse to be dark skinned - it was believed that you'd be so dark that you couldn't see them at night unless they were smiling or you could see the whites of their eyes. At one time, it was a sharp comic barb that got levelled at some people. Kerry James Marshall

Time You Eyes People Dark Black Some People Unless One Time See Some Could Sharp Smiling Comic Got Were Lot Them Really Averse Skinned Whites Who Believed Night

My introduction to art history was like everybody else's. You see an art history book that has works by Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Yes, these things are great. But I don't see a reflection of myself in any of these things I'm looking at. Kerry James Marshall

Art Myself Great History You Book Reflection Looking Everybody Else Introduction See Rembrandt Like Art History Yes History Book Michelangelo Any Leonardo Leonardo Da Vinci Works Things

One of the reasons I paint black people is because I am a black person. Kerry James Marshall

People Black Because Am Person Paint Reasons

I try to make work about things that matter. Kerry James Marshall

Work Matter Try About Make Things

There's this idea that many of the attitudes and personality developments in black folks in the diaspora are a consequence of this unresolved trauma. There have been attempts by black artists to try and figure out how to represent that in some kind of way. Kerry James Marshall

The National Gallery is the place that means to represent everything that's good and important in art and show what it believes everyone who is a citizen should recognize and engage. Kerry James Marshall

Art Good Citizen Important National Everyone Everything Recognize Represent Place Gallery Should Engage Means Show Who Believes

What you're trying to create is a certain kind of an indispensable presence, where your position in the narrative is not contingent on whether somebody likes you, or somebody knows you, or somebody's a friend, or somebody's being generous to you. Kerry James Marshall

You Somebody Kind Indispensable Generous Likes Knows Narrative Contingent Friend Trying Being Where Whether Create Certain Your Presence Position

If people keep telling you you can't do a thing, then you need to find a really good reason to continue. If someone tells you you can't do something, how will you know? If someone tells you something is impossible, how will you know? Kerry James Marshall

Artwork operates on two different levels: On one level, there's artwork as a mode of expressivity, and then there's the other side, where the image is a construction that is meant to engage in a discursive field in order to perform a particular function. Kerry James Marshall

I used to always say - and I think a lot of artists think of it this way - that when you see a black figure, the way the critical establishment operated, you can only imagine that figure having a sociological value. They never say the ways in which their aesthetics were equally worthy of consideration. Kerry James Marshall

You Value Black Think Consideration Way Say Ways Critical Worthy See Having Only Never Operated Equally Always Aesthetic Were Lot Artists Establishment Which Used Figure Sociological Imagine

I have been a stalwart advocate for the legacy of Charles White. I have said it so often, it could go without saying. I have always believed that his work should be seen wherever great pictures are collected and made available to art-loving audiences. Kerry James Marshall

Work Saying Great Made Seen White Collected Charles Could Pictures Without Advocate Said Always Audiences Go Been His Legacy Often Wherever Available Should Believed

A close friend of mine described me as a radical pragmatist. I embrace this no-nonsense distinction wholeheartedly. It is a character trait that matches the sense of myself I've had from as far back as I can remember. I am not one who goes in much for magical thinking. I don't believe in destiny, fate, or things like divine guidance, either. Kerry James Marshall

Myself Character Me Guidance Fate Remember Sense Radical Believe Thinking Back Mine Distinction Destiny Embrace Magical Divine Had Like Matches Am Friend Close Close Friend Trait Goes Either Far Much Who Wholeheartedly Things

Every step on my way to becoming an artist seemed preordained. The right people were always in the right places at the right times to boost me to the next level. I was fortunate to be selected for a summer drawing class offered to teens at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles County. Kerry James Marshall

Art Me Class People Every Every Step Right People Teens Summer Way Drawing Boost Angeles Seemed Selected Step Institute County Always Becoming Los Los Angeles Were Times Offered Artist Places Next Next Level Fortunate Preordained Right Level

People don't really want to hear me say this, but a black person who will give a million dollars to the Museum of Modern Art but won't give a million to the Studio Museum in Harlem is simply mistaken. Kerry James Marshall

I gave up on the idea of making art a long time ago, because I wanted to know how to make paintings; but once I came to know that, reconsidering the question of what art is returned as a critical issue. Kerry James Marshall

To me, if there is any sort of value added to the accumulation of knowledge over time, then the work of artists should be a reflection of that accumulated value, accumulated knowledge. You have to demonstrate that you have the sophistication to put that into play in the work you're making. Kerry James Marshall

When art works travel from place to place, what you have is the opportunity to engage with the intellect of another person who has made a thing that should have enough information in it in the way it's constructed to start thinking about why that picture got made - not why it is relevant to you. Kerry James Marshall

Art You Travel Opportunity Made Picture Thinking Enough Way Relevant About Constructed Another Got Intellect Person Information Place Should Engage Who Works Why Thing Start

The history of political movements in the African diaspora is that the solution to the problem is never in the hands of people who are advancing the movement. I try and operate on my own terms. Kerry James Marshall

History People Problem Political Try Own Solution My Own Never Advancing Terms Operate Hands Movement The History Of African Movements Who

Kerry James Marshall Quotes

No more Kerry James Marshall quotes