Kerry James Marshall: The Histories in Paris
Location: Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
Date: September 18, 2026 – January 24, 2027
Project: Kerry James Marshall's first exhibition in France
Why it Matters: Seventy works, including eight new paintings made specifically for this show
Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama. He is known for large-scale paintings that put Black figures at the center of the classic Western genres, from formal portraits to history paintings. Over four decades he has painted the Middle Passage and the legacies of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. His references run wide, taking in nineteenth-century French painting, comic books, and science fiction.
The exhibition includes seventy works, among them eight new paintings made specifically for the show. Most are paintings, with a smaller group of prints, drawings, and sculpture, on loan from museums and private collections across North America and Europe.
One painting on view, De Style, from 1993, shows a barbershop scene more than eight feet wide. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art bought it with funds from Ruth and Jacob Bloom, and it remains one of his best-known works.
The Histories runs through January 24, 2027.
More info: mam.paris.fr
