RECLAIMING HISTORY

Experience the Black narrative at the centre of art history through the Kerry James Marshall: The Histories exhibit.

Photo courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

From 20 September 2025 to 18 January 2026, the Royal Academy of Arts in London will host Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, the largest survey of the internationally acclaimed artist’s work ever pre sented in the United Kingdom. Showcasing more than 70 paintings, including the monumental Knowledge and Wonder (1995) from the Chicago Public Library — never before loaned — the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to engage with Marshall’s powerful reimagining of art history.

Kerry James Marshall, born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, is widely regarded as one of the most significant paint ers of his generation. His oeuvre places Black figures front and centre, reclaiming a space from which they have histori cally been excluded. Drawing upon six centuries of Western representational painting, Marshall constructs what he terms a “counter-archive,” a visual narrative that foregrounds Black experience and identity while engaging with broader themes of memory, civil rights, and contemporary culture.

Marshall’s large-scale, vividly colored paintings are rich with references — from comics and science fiction to per sonal recollections and historical motifs — allowing him to comment on the past, celebrate the everyday, and imagine optimistic futures. His work is both epic in scale and intimate in focus, offering viewers a complex dialogue between history, identity, and imagination.

his London exhibition, organised in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, repre sents a landmark moment for UK audiences, many of whom will see his work for the first time. Highlights include Knowl edge and Wonder, a monumental library commission that demonstrates Marshall’s mastery of scale and narrative, along side key works spanning his career, from early explorations to his most recent pieces.

Marshall’s career has been distinguished by numerous solo shows and commissions worldwide, including landmark exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Met Breuer, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Vancouver’s Rennie Museum. His site-specific sculpture A Monumental Journey permanently graces Hansen Triangle Park in Des Moines, Iowa, while his stained-glass commission for the Washington National Cathedral, unveiled in 2023, reflects his ongoing engagement with public art and narrative.

The artist’s contributions have been recognised with pres tigious awards and honors, from the MacArthur Foundation grant (1997) to the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal (2019), as well as ap pointments to President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Marshall’s works are held in major institu tions worldwide, including The Met, MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.