Lot 402
  • 402

Kerry James Marshall

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 USD
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Description

  • Kerry James Marshall
  • Study for 'Slow Dance'
  • signed and dated '92
  • ink, gouache and graphite on paper
  • 16 1/4 by 13 1/8 in. 41.3 by 33.4 cm.

Provenance

Koplin Gallery, Santa Monica
Acquired from the above by the present owner in July 1992

Condition

This work is in excellent condition overall. The sheet is hinged verso to the mat along the top edge. The sheet is cut unevenly along the top edge, only visible when unframed and most likely inherent to the artist's working method. There is a soft undulation throughout the sheet, inherent to the artist's choice of medium and working method. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Kerry James Marshall’s Study for ‘Slow Dance’ grants a rare view into Marshall’s creative process, exposing the methods by which the artist develops scenes of black domestic life, one of the primary themes running through his work. Study for ‘Slow Dance’ fixes its gaze on a couple, ensconced in washes of grey ink and wrapped in each other’s arms. Marshall places objects throughout the room—a table in the lower right and a console in the background—but gives little contextual information regarding the subject’s location, time period or identities beyond musical notations and lyrics which float through the air. Marshall meticulously delineates the figures and their skin tones, using crosshatching to form a sense of dimensionality and difference in the couple that defies what can be conventionally achieved with the medium. Though one of the figures stares at the viewer, their identities are unknown; the subjects in Study for ‘Slow Dance’ could be any black couple anywhere. Articulating the philosophy for the series of  romantic pictures to which the present work belongs, Marshall explains, “what I am doing is establishing a presence, a black presence that isn’t traumatically conditioned by its relationship to a practice or a structure called racism” (The artist in conversation with Charles Gaines in “Interview,” in Kerry James Marshall, London 2017, p. 32). Marshall insists on the virtue of quotidian black love and interiority, again elevating these scenes through art, and in his view, immortalizing them.