Marshall, a Los Angeles painter, depicts African Americans in his mixed media works. Many of the paintings feature characters that are surrounded by musical notations, candles, voodoo signs and other cultural symbols. The people portrayed seem to embody both dignity and stillness.
In the the shallow, stagelike spaces of Kerry James Marshall's large unstretched canvases, black men and women pose and turn with a majestic sense of inner stillness. Their faces are wide-eyed and solemn, even ...