Kerry James Marshall

Over the course of two weeks (February 09-23), renowned artist Kerry James Marshall will work with painters from San Francisco's Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center to create a new commission in the museum's primary public space. Marshall's rich and varied body of work includes large-scale paintings and installations that explore issues of racial identity and black history. Utilizing the two large surfaces in the Haas Atrium that once featured Sol LeWitt's wall drawings, Marshall's new murals will depict Mount Vernon and Monticello, the estates of American presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Although these cherished sites have been depicted countless times, Marshall's paintings stand apart by playfully incorporating the slaves who supported plantation life. At first glance a number of optical tricks conceal them from view, but visitors who engage in the artist's visual game will discover the otherwise invisible figures who are so often omitted from representations of American history.

Kerry James Marshall