Cathy's Art Diary

Enlightening online lecture from ARTscapades with the curator of the Kerry James Marshall exhibition at the Royal Academy. I had seen the show and loved it but knew I hadn’t understood all the nuances of it so it was useful and fascinating to hear Mark Godfrey talk about the works and his curating choices. He talked about how he met the artist back in 2012 and had been discussing putting on a show of his work for the last five years. He talked about how they worked together on it. He then led us around the rooms explaining the titles and theme of each room and introducing the main works. As someone asked in the Q&A “Can you appreciate the work without knowing the references?”. I was shouting yes as I had but knowing more about the work certainly added another layer.

Fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by Kerry James Marshall. This was clever, layered work and much more subtle that I’m imagined from just seeing images from it online. There was a deep awareness of art history that was used to reflect black experience and history. The labels were clearly written the explain the depth of the work and it introduced me to a variety of characters. Marshall had included a room of new work which reflected on the role of Africans in the slave trade which added a nuanced argument to the narrative. The works themselves were very painterly combining narrative with subtle details such as delicate still-lives and rather good dogs. Closes 18 January 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard