Quotessence
Home / Authors / Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall

Kerry James Marshall Quotes

Artist

Filter quotes by topic

AllBlackPeopleKindArtistWayBlacknessBlack PeopleIfsThinkingFiguresMuseumsArtFormerMeanNarrativePortraitsSelfShadowUseWant

Famous Kerry James Marshall Quotes

“[My picture A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self ] was a way of demonstrating that there was a broad range of possibilities and fairly unlimited utility for a black figure that didn't have to comprise its blackness in order to preserve a place in the field of representation.”

WaySelfArtistOrderBlackFiguresFieldsPossibilityShadowFormerPreservesRangeBroadsRepresentationPortraitsUnlimitedUtilityBlacknessDemonstrating
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“If you look at the image [ Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self ], it treads on a kind of popular stereotypical image of the black figure, in both its flatness and slightly comic edge. To take that image as a starting point and to render it in a proto-classical medium, like egg tempera, and then use a repertoire of classical compositional devices to make the picture was a way of setting up an engagement with art history.”

IfsWayLooksKindArtSelfUseArtistBlackFiguresShadowStartingEdgesSettingMediumsSettingsFormerComicEggsDevicesEngagementPortraitsStarting PointArt HistoryFlatness
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“The condition of visibility as it relates to black people was crucial. Connected to that, I've always been interested in science fiction and horror films and was acutely aware of the political and social implications of Ralph Ellison's description of invisibility as it relates to black people, as opposed to the kind of retinal invisibility that H.G. Wells described in his novel Invisible Man.”

PeopleMenWellsKindFilmPoliticalSocialBlackFictionNovelConditionsHorrorScience FictionConnectedInvisibleRelateDescriptionCrucialBlack PeopleImplicationsHorror FilmInvisibilityVisibility
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“Part of what I am dealing with, with this blackness, is asking the question, "Where are those black people, who are as dark as the description of a young black boy that Solomon Northup gives in 12 Years A Slave?" He describes the young black 14-year-old boy as "blacker than any crow." You have to question if he is using that metaphorically or as a descriptive?”

PeopleIfsGivingYearsYoungBlackDarkBoysAskingSlaveDescriptionBlack PeopleCrowBlacknessSolomonBlack Boy
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“Just like in the art museum, and notions of beauty and pleasure, if the hero is always a white guy with a squared jaw or pretty woman with big breasts, then kids start thinking that's how it's supposed to be. Part of the problem was that black comic book artists were making super heroes with the same pattern as the white super heroes. When you read a lot of those comics, the black super heroes don't seem to have anything to do.”

IfsThinkingArtBookProblemBigsSeemsKidsArtistGuyBlackWhitePleasureHeroNotionPatternsComicSupposed To BeBreastsMuseumsComic BookWhite GuysPretty WomanSuper HeroBig Breast
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“I just thought someone has to figure out how to break through that barrier and create a narrative for a black super hero story to unfold at the same scale as something like Star Wars. Rythm Mastr is about producing a narrative of a hero engaged in a struggle as complicated as those other stories. The catalyst for it was the beginning of the demolition of public housing in Chicago.”

WarStoriesStarsBlackBreakStruggleFiguresHeroComplicatedScalesNarrativeEngagedBarriersChicagoHousingCatalystBreak ThroughSuper HeroDemolitionPublic Housing
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image

“One of the things I recognized early on, doing whatever studies of black history I have, is that even though black folks were transported as slaves, into servitude, when they were carried out of Africa they left empty-handed, but they didn't leave empty-headed. They carried with them the culture they knew, the culture they had, and that culture reconstituted itself in all the places they went.”

CultureBlackStudySlaveBlack HistoryServitude
Author:Kerry James Marshall
Create image