Kerry James Marshall: One Artist’s View of Black History

In the 600-year history of the African American experience, there are tragically few known and collected artists and even fewer representations of black people when it comes to major museum collections.

MOCA is helping to rectify that with the first major retrospective of Kerry James Marshall, whose 80 paintings show subjects as subversive-yet-ordinary as African Americans going about their daily lives. Now in his early 60s, Marshall has captured moments in African American life — starting during the Black Consciousness movement and culminating in portraits of artists painted during the Obama years. moca.org

Watch MOCA’s Chief Curator Helen Molesworth’s conversation with Kerry James Marshall.