The Histories
At the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, The Histories stands out as one of the season’s major exhibitions. For his first major exhibition in France, Kerry James Marshall brings together nearly 70 works, including eight previously unseen paintings, in a presentation of remarkable ambition and power. Monumental canvases, dazzling painterly skill and a bold vision: to rewrite art history by placing Black figures at its centre.
One of the exhibition’s most striking features is Marshall’s use of black. Deep, rich and luminous, it gives his figures an extraordinary presence. His distinctive palette celebrates the depth, beauty and expressive power of Black skin, allowing his subjects to command the canvas with confidence and vitality. Black becomes not simply a colour, but a powerful affirmation of identity and presence.
Throughout the exhibition, echoes of the Renaissance, 19th-century French painting and grand academic compositions come into view. Marshall masters these traditions with remarkable virtuosity, not to imitate them, but to reclaim them and redistribute their roles. He does not turn his back on tradition; he transforms its narrative.
There is also an unexpected tenderness to the exhibition. Scenes of park life, play and intimacy reveal an artist who refuses to define his subjects solely through struggle or suffering. Instead, he celebrates their leisure, elegance and the quiet beauty of everyday life experiences long underrepresented in the history of painting. This, too, is a deeply political gesture.
With The Histories, the plural matters. Marshall reminds us that art history is not a single, fixed narrative, but a multitude of stories and memories, many of which have yet to receive the recognition they deserve. More than revisiting the past, he expands our understanding of it, offering a new way of looking at painting and the people it represents. A masterful exhibition that leaves us seeing art history differently.
