Untitled

2009

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

In Marshall’s powerful allegory of painting, an artist sits holding her oversize palette, turned away from an unfinished self-portrait on her easel. The painting within a painting—or, more precisely, the painting about painting—is a time-honored motif taken up by many of the greatest artists in the Western tradition to which Marshall now contributes. But he has given this theme a twist by presenting the unfinished portrait as a paint-by-number composition. The numerical indications give the viewer the means to participate and complete the painting. Marshall’s concerns with the question of finish date to the beginning of his career, when the varying states of objects in the Los Angeles studio of the painter Charles White caught his attention.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Untitled
Artist: Kerry James Marshall (American, born Birmingham, Alabama, 1955)
Date: 2009
Geography: Country of Origin USA
Medium: Acrylic on PVC panel
Dimensions: 61 1/8 × 72 7/8 × 3 7/8 in. (155.3 × 185.1 × 9.8 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Yale University Art Gallery
Purchased with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund and a gift from Jacqueline L. Bradley, B.A. 1979
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art