The History Of Painting

American artist KERRY JAMES MARSHALL has been declared the most influential painter alive. SALLY HALES finds out why

- Sally Hales

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think the Chicago-based figurative painter might be feeling the weight of success. His recent London show, Kerry James Marshall: History of Painting, came hot on the heels of the career-defining Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, a

35-year retrospective that showed in Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York across 2016 and 2017 to universal acclaim. And then his four-metre acrylic and collage on canvas painting, Past Times, sold to rap music star Sean “Diddy” Combs for $21.1m at a Sotheby’s auction recently, setting the record for a living African American artist, while his Untitled (London Bridge) was acquired by Tate Britain in April. He’s now been named the most influential painter alive on an art power list to boot.

But Kerry James Marshall isn’t feeling the pressure. In fact, at a preview of History of Painting, the affable artist couldn’t have been more relaxed. And the same goes for his practice – his comments about which reveal an ease born of quiet, albeit unshakable, confidence. “The structure of my practice as an artist makes me feel like I’m completely free,” he says. “I’m not restrained by anything or anybody. I don’t have a lack of knowledge, a lack of ability, to do any of the things that I want.”

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, Marshall spent his early years in the midst of the civil rights movement, before moving with his family to a housing project in Watts, Los Angeles, at the age of seven. A few months into their lives there, the 1965 Watts riots engulfed their neighbourhood. It was a childhood that taught Marshall both resilience and ambition.