Kerry James Marshall’s De Style: Reclaiming Identity Through Abstraction
Kerry James Marshall, born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, grew up in Los Angeles during the civil rights movement. His experiences navigating both Black identity and the predominantly white art world shaped much of his work. Marshall’s upbringing in a time of social change, paired with his formal training at the Otis Art Institute, led him to become a prominent figure in contemporary art. His work often addresses issues of race, culture, and representation, and De Style (1993) is a striking example of how he uses abstraction to confront these themes.
De Style is a painting that blends the aesthetics of the Dutch De Stijl movement, which is known for its minimalist geometric forms and use of primary colors, with African American cultural references. Marshall appropriates the De Stijl style, typically associated with European modernism and transforms it into a critique of Western art history’s exclusion of Black culture. The piece uses bold, saturated colors like red, yellow, and black, which are symbolic of African American identity and heritage, offering a stark contrast to the cool, neutral tones often seen in De Stijl works.
By combining abstraction with cultural symbolism, Marshall challenges the dominance of European art movements while asserting the validity of African American aesthetics within the modernist tradition. The vibrant color palette and geometric forms in De Style not only reflect Marshall’s personal exploration of Black identity but also push back against the limited representation of Black culture in the art world. His use of abstraction becomes a tool for cultural reclamation, making a powerful statement about visibility, inclusion, and the need for a diverse art history.
De Style is more than just an homage to De Stijl; it’s a subversion of it. Marshall redefines the boundaries of abstraction, showing that Black culture can occupy a legitimate space within the narrative of modern art. Through this work, he challenges the viewer to reconsider the intersection of race, representation, and artistic tradition.
Related Rare Exhibits
Follow the By Our Hands: Artists of the Diaspora Exhibit Series
