Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Study for Blue Water, Silver Moon, 1991

Lost Boys: AKA Black Johnny

Lost Boys: AKA Black Al

Lost Boys: AKA Baby Brother1992

Beauty Examined, 1993


KERRY JAMES MARSHALL

I checked out the MoMA site this morning, and came across this stunning image (at top) of what was upon first glance, a mermaid-woman, half-submerged in water. Mystical, mysterious, haunting, heavy, lovely.

Born in 1955 in Birmingham, Marshall pulled inspiration from his surroundings and the Civil Rights Movement.

 “You can’t be born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and grow up in South Central [Los Angeles] near the Black Panthers headquarters, and not feel like you’ve got some kind of social responsibility. You can’t move to Watts in 1963 and not speak about it. That determined a lot of where my work was going to go...” 
— Marshall (thx PBS.org) 

Lucky for me, Study for Blue Water is currently on view at the MoMA as part of their Contemporary Art from the Collection exhibit, until May of next year.

Read more about the artist here.


No comments:

Post a Comment