Untitled study for "Memento #5"
Artist
Kerry James Marshall
(American, born 1955)
Date2003
MediumPencil on paper
DimensionsOverall: 18 x 15 inches (45.72 x 38.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery
Object number2005.23.1
Signedverso b.r.: "K. J. M. 03"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThe drawing depicts a black woman holding her hands together in front of her chest. She appears to have two, angellike wings attached to her back. The woman is presented without the context of a background. The artist drew three sketches of the human hand, from various points of view, in the space surrounding the woman.Exhibition HistoryAmerican Art – In Preparation, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
MO, November 11, 2015-May 8, 2016, no cat.
Kerry James Marshall created this study for Memento #5, his painted elegy to the Civil Rights Movement. The study reveals how a preparatory sketch becomes a tool to help an artist work through key elements of a composition. Marshall repeatedly drew the angelic figure's hands to determine their proper position and placement. He ultimately reversed the direction her palms faced while gripping the curtain in his monumental finished painting.
Collection
of the artist, Chicago, IL, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 2003-2005;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Copyright© Kerry James Marshall
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