One of Kerry James Marshall’s earliest and most iconic large-scale paintings, Bang depicts three Black children in a verdant suburban backyard, observing the Fourth of July. Invoking the grand tradition of European history painting, the work exemplifies Marshall’s commitment to, in the artist’s words, “representing Blackness in the extreme and letting it be beautiful. Bang embodies Marshall’s dedication to a vision of American culture that includes and honors Black histories.
Black and part Black Birds in America: (Grackle, Cardinal & Rose-breasted Grosbeak), 2020, by Kerry James Marshall, was part of the group exhibition 20/20at David Zwirner gallery in NYC in December of 2020. The painting is part of a series that explores black identity, his love of birding, and by the history and work of John James Audubon.
Below is an excerpt from a New York Times article about the work and its Audubon connection-
“There’s a disconnect between the house that’s built and the birds,” Mr. Marshall said of the crow and grackle. “It’s not designed for them, you know?” The scene considers, he said, “the pecking order.”
The series itself has been brewing in Mr. Marshall’s mind for eight or nine years, he said, and he began painting the works just before transmissions of the coronavirus accelerated in the United States in March.
A casual bird enthusiast who has been fascinated by Audubon’s draughtsmanship since he was a child, Mr. Marshall has long put Black protagonists at the center of his complex, richly layered compositions. “Many Mansions” (1994), one of his large-scale depictions of housing projects, features three Black men gardening — and, not incidentally, there are two bluebirds holding up a banner, too. The pointed inclusion of Black figures is part of what he has called a “counter-archive” to the familiar, white-centered story of Western art.
For the new series, the images hinge on Audubon’s own racial heritage: Many people believe he was, as Mr. Marshall’s title suggests, “part Black” — born in what is now Haiti, as Jean Rabin, to a white, plantation-owning father and a Creole chambermaid who may have been of racially-mixed descent. But, the theory goes, he was able to pass as white.
For MOCA’s free (but RSVP) music night at The Geffen Contemporary location- the bands are Surf Curse, Tacocat and Starcrawler
At MOCA’s Grand Avenue location, photographer Deana Lawson will be discussing the work of Kerry James Marshall for the Artists on Artists series (free)
This week’s free concert at Santa Monica Pier is Lemaitre and Coast Modern
For this week’s Oracle Film Series at The Broad, Claire Denis’ film Beau Travail will be shown along with Rineke Dijkstra’s short Annemiek ($10)
The Hammer Museum has a free screening of Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits
Bedouine is playing at the Bootleg Theater with CHIMNEY opening
Frankie and the Witch Fingers are opening for The Paranoyds at The Echo
Friday
For the last of the Constitutional Happy Hour programs at The Hammer Museum, the topic is hate speech
For the first DJ Night in Grand Park, Peanut Butter Wolf will be performing along with other DJs he has chosen
Junior Boys, Kilo Kish, How to Dress Well and Chrome Sparks (DJ set) are playing at the Globe Theatre
Ducktails is playing at the Hi Hat with Jimmy Whispers and Martin Frawley
The Districts are playing at the Troubadour with The Spirit of the Beehive and Norwegian Arms opening
The outdoor movie at The Autry in Griffith Park this week is Top Gun
For the first of Chinatown’s Summer Nights there are artisan and culinary presentations, a craft and vintage market, a beer garden, a live music stage and more. Plus there are some excellent art galleries nearby worth checking out.
Matthew Modine and Vincent D’Onofrio will be discussing Full Metal Jacket before its screening at The Egyptian Theatre
Tycho is playing at the Greek Theatre with Todd Terje & The Olsens
Sunday
Deap Vally, Plague Vendor, The Red Pears, Zig Zags, Flat Worms and many more are playing the all day Dirty Penni Fest at The Echo and Echoplex
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (5/18-5/21/17)-
Thursday
Greg Tate is giving a free lecture on the work of Kerry James Marshall at MOCA Grand Ave which is also free all day for Art Museum Day
Oliver Stone will be introducing his film Nixon at the Aero Theatre
LACMA is having a free screening of Breakable You, starring Holly Hunter and Alfred Molina, with a conversation with director and writer Andrew Wagner to follow
The Orbiting Human Circus featuring The Music Tapes combines music, stories, games and magic and it’s happening at the Bootleg Theater
Rubblebucket are playing with Sego and Alexander F at the Troubadour
Friday
It’s week two of Hammer Museum’s Constitutional Happy Hour with $5 drinks and discussion of an aspect of the Constitution- this time the topic is LGBT and gender based rights
Downtown Dark Nights returns to L.A. Live with $5 drink and food menus, live painting, a market, music and more (free)
Björk Digital, which includes six Virtual Reality experiences, begins today at the Magic Box at The Reef. Tickets are going fast. ($35 and running until 6/4)
The Jesus and Mary Chain are playing at The Wiltern
Ho99o9 are playing with Injury Reserve and The Bots at the Echoplex
Saturday
KCRW is hosting the art, music and food event Skyline at L.A. Historic Park with Miike Snow, Duke Dumont, Lido, Eden, MICHL, and Elohim performing
Off the 405, The Getty’s free music night, is back for the next few Saturdays- this week Nite Jewel is performing
KROQ is having its Weenie Roast y Fiesta 2017 at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, with Lorde, Imagine Dragons, Cage the Elephant, Lana del Ray and more performing
There are still tickets left for Ceremony’s early show with Cold Beat and Initiate at The Echo (part of their three day residency)
Sunday
It’s Museums of the Arroyo Day during which The Gamble House, Heritage Square, L.A. Police Museum, Lummis Home, Pasadena Museum of History, and The Autry are all free from noon to 5pm
It’s the second day of The Beverly Hills Art Show – a nice free way to spend the day outside checking out art
DIIV is playing at the Regent Theater with The Paranoyds and Tashaki Miyaki opening
Tonight is the second night U2 are playing at the Rosebowl to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Joshua Tree album with The Lumineers opening
Inhalt, Kontravoid, and Boan are bringing their retro electronic sounds to Part Time Punks night at the Echoplex
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (3/30-4/2/17)-
Thursday
Artist Kerry James Marshall will be in conversation with Helen Molesworth at the Colburn School (200 South Grand Avenue) which will include discussion of his MOCA exhibition (free but get there early!)
The Orwells are playing with No Parents and The Walters at the Regent Theater
Angel City Brewery is hosting the opening of “What Does DTLA Mean to You?” an exhibition showcasing the work of artists from the Arts District and Skid Row
Drill Los Angeles Music Festival at the Echo and Echoplex begins tonight with 3 day passes starting at $46.50, or you can buy tickets for the individual shows. Tonight Bob Mould is playing with Immersion and Alina Bea.
Hammer Museum is hosting a free panel discussion- The Not So Silver Screen: Black Women in Media with actress Diahann Carroll, actress and director LisaGay Hamilton and more
Kane Strang, Tracy Bryant, and Emily Edrosa are playing at the Bootleg Theater
Mikal Cronin is playing with a string & horn ensemble as part of Drill Los Angeles at the Echo. Wand, Laetitia Sadler, Fitted, and more are also on the bill
The Aero Theatre is showing 2001: A Space Odyssey with a brand new 70mm print
Why? are playing at the Regent Theater with Open Mike Eagle and Rituals of Mine
Methyl Ethel are playing at the Bootleg Theater with Vorhees and BOYO
Saturday
The Getty Museum is having multiple performances of Selected Shorts: April Antics: Fictions & Foolery, a chance to see the popular podcast live with Jane Kaczmarek hosting and a cast that includes Yvette Nicole Brown, Sharon Gless, Liev Schrieber and more (also Sunday)
Electric Six are playing at the Bootleg Theater with Residual Kid and VOWWS
For the last night of Drill, Wire will be performing at the Echo as well as Julia Holter, Mild High Club and more.
Sunday
CAFAM is hosting- Social (Media) Politics of Photography in the Digital Age- A Discussion with Arpad Kovacs & Ramin Talaie for “Focus Iran 2: Contemporary Photography and Video”. This is a good opportunity to check out that exhibition as well as Chapters, which includes a great variety of the book arts of Southern California. CAFAM is pay what you wish on Sunday but RSVP for the talk if you are interested.
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears are playing at the Troubadour
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Flea Market returns to the Regent Theater for its monthly event
This is the last weekend to see Kerry James Marshall:Mastery at Met Breuer in New York, definitely one of the best exhibitions I saw in 2016.
Here is Met Breuer’s overview of the exhibition-
This major monographic exhibition is the largest museum retrospective to date of the work of American artist Kerry James Marshall (born 1955). Encompassing nearly 80 works—including 72 paintings—that span the artist’s remarkable 35-year career, it reveals Marshall’s practice to be one that synthesizes a wide range of pictorial traditions to counter stereotypical representations of black people in society and reassert the place of the black figure within the canon of Western painting.
Born before the passage of the Civil Rights Act in Birmingham, Alabama, and witness to the Watts rebellion in 1965, Marshall has long been an inspired and imaginative chronicler of the African American experience. He is known for his large-scale narrative history paintings featuring black figures—defiant assertions of blackness in a medium in which African Americans have long been invisible—and his exploration of art history covers a broad temporal swath stretching from the Renaissance to 20th-century American abstraction. Marshall critically examines and reworks the Western canon through its most archetypal forms: the historical tableau, landscape and genre painting, and portraiture. His work also touches upon vernacular forms such as the muralist tradition and the comic book in order to address and correct, in his words, the “vacuum in the image bank” and to make the invisible visible.
The exhibition runs concurrently with Kerry James Marshall Selects, a room curated by Marshall, of work from the Met collection “ranging from the Northern Renaissance to French post-Impressionism, and from African masks to American photography of the 1950s and ‘60s, underscoring the global and historical nature of the influences that are predominant in his practice”. This is a wonderful addition that adds another layer of perspective to the work.
Taking up two floors of the building, and with work that is often filled with detailed imagery, make sure to leave enough time to take it all in.
For more information on the artist, this New York Times article discusses the retrospective, the artist’s history, and includes quotes from an interview the author had with Marshall in his studio.
This exhibition closes on 1/29/17. If you are in Los Angeles, or visiting, it will open at MOCA Grand Avenue on March 12, 2017.
(Image courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Photo by Nathan Keay)
