COMING SOON: KERRY JAMES MARSHALL: THE HISTORIES AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
September 2025
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled, 2009. Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund and a gift from Jacqueline L. Bradley, B.A. 1979. © Kerry James Marshall
This autumn, the Royal Academy of Arts unveils a landmark exhibition: Kerry James Marshall: The Histories. Marking the artist’s 70th birthday, it is the largest exhibition of Marshall’s work ever to be shown in Europe and his first major institutional presentation in the UK since 2006.
Bringing together more than 70 works from museums and private collections across North America and Europe, the exhibition charts Marshall’s expansive career - spanning painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture. Revered as one of the most important contemporary history painters working today, Marshall has made it his mission to centre Black figures in the grand tradition of Western picture-making. His works address profound themes - the Middle Passage, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements - while also elevating the poetry of everyday Black life: lovers dancing, families picnicking, children playing, friends gathered in salons.
Kerry James Marshall, School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012 | Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shain man Gallery, New York. Photo: Sean Pathasema
Marshall’s artistic language is deeply rooted in both art history and contemporary culture, with influences as varied as Manet and Seurat, Afrofuturism and science fiction. His large-scale canvases, rich with symbolism, invite viewers to consider hard truths about the past while simultaneously offering visions of resilience and hope.
The Royal Academy’s exhibition unfolds thematically across 11 groups of works made between the 1980s and today. Visitors are first greeted by The Academy (2012), in which a life-drawing model raises a fist in the iconic Black Power salute, setting the tone for Marshall’s powerful dialogue with Western traditions. Early works such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980) and Invisible Man (1986) explore visibility, absence, and representation, while later monumental paintings - including Knowledge and Wonder (1995), on loan from Chicago - transform everyday moments into epic history.
Kerry James Marshall, Knowledge and and Wonder, 1995 | City of Chicago Public Art Program and the Chicago Public Library, Legler Regional Library © Kerry James Marshall. Photo: Patrick L. Pyszka, City of Chicago
Alongside his vast narrative paintings are imagined portraits of historical figures such as Olaudah Equiano, Scipio Moorhead and Harriet Tubman, which raise questions about how portraiture functions when archives are incomplete or missing altogether. Sculpture, too, plays its part: Wake (2003–ongoing) evolves with each new exhibition, bearing fresh additions that echo Marshall’s insistence on history as a living, unfinished story. The exhibition culminates in a newly unveiled cycle of paintings exploring African history and the transatlantic slave trade - works never before seen by the public.
Marshall’s place at the Royal Academy is significant. Elected as an Honorary Royal Academician in 2022, he now joins a lineage of globally celebrated artists - Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, William Kentridge - who have been honoured with RA retrospectives. His exhibition in Burlington House continues this distinguished tradition, while also extending a vital conversation about who and what is remembered in art history.
Kerry James Marshall, De Style, 1993 | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by Ruth and Jacob Bloom. C Kerry James Marshall Photo: © Museum Associates / LACMA
The Histories runs from 20 September 2025 to 18 January 2026 at the Royal Academy of Arts. Admission starts from £23, with concessions available and free entry for under-16s and Friends of the RA. A specially curated programme, AccessArt25, will also open the doors to 2,000 young people aged 16–25 this autumn, offering free entry, workshops and creative opportunities.
For lovers of London’s art scene, this exhibition is not to be missed. Marshall’s work is bold, challenging, and deeply beautiful - a rare chance to witness the epic sweep of history reframed through one of the most vital artistic voices of our time.
Cover photo: Kerry James Marshall, Vignette #13, 2008 | Susan Manilow Collection. © Kerry James Marshall. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
