REVIEW: James Kerry Marshall

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories storms into the Royal Academy’s main galleries, a triumph of energy, colour and tough truths.

The paintings are huge, figurative and immediately engaging. Kids will instantly respond to them. The scenes in the first room, The Academy - images of models posing, artists working, people in a gallery - are familiar. The difference here is that the figures are exclusively Black. It is deliberately discombobulating. Marshall is subverting classical Western painting – he studied it, he can ‘do’ it brilliantly but he is going to use it to tell the story of Black people. The Invisible Man series paints black figures on black backgrounds; The Painting of Modern Life (my favourite room) has scenes of everyday life, given an epic feel – not unlike the fabulous Noah Davis show at the Barbican earlier this year.

The second half of the exhibition goes back further in time. Middle Passage addresses the history of the infamous crossings made by slaves across the Atlantic. Pantheon presents a series of portraits of historical characters from the period: slave rebels, poets, artists, abolitionists. Marshall does not shrink from the violence that some of them were associated with; Portrait of Nat Turner with the Head of his Master is a horrific image but, as the caption points out, no more horrific than scenes of classical art. But there is joy too. The Wedding Portrait of activist Harriet Tubman is a marriage of love.

The last rooms look at the impact of slavery and colonialism in modern Africa. Again, Marshall is not taking an easy route. There are images of Black people committing atrocities on other Black people and of two weddings of ‘white queens’ to leaders of independent Black nations. The narrative is challenging and complex.

The final room presents two works, Wake and Gulf Stream that recall the journey made by enslaved Africans but which suggest the growing power of Black cultural expression. You leave drained but also uplifted.

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories Royal Academy 20 September–18 January 2026. Tickets: adults, U16s free.