Kerry James Marshall, Our Town, 1995 

This was so illuminating. Thank you so much for this channel. I’ve been subscribed for years and it still remains my favorite on RU-vid.

Kerry James Marshall is one of Chicago's best-known contemporary artists. His work was featured in a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago a few years ago, which included all of his series paintings. His work is a commentary on what it means to be an African-American. During an interview with the artist, he revealed some of his painting technique. For example, his figures are rendered with only pure black pigment, while the rest of the painting has no areas of black, as if to emphasize the subject's blackness. Also, as with this painting, his work references other works of art or literature. The artist lives in the historically black Bronzeville neighbourhood, and teaches painting at The University of Chicago.

Wow what a clever painting by Kerry James Marshall. I love the way you explained and analysed this artwork. It feels like that the artist is having a multifaceted dialogue with the viewer about race, money, social divisions and unrealised dreams. Such bold decisions to use very vivid black colours and to leave parts of the painting unfinished. I agree - the main figures really creates a sort of uneasiness and questions our assumptions about race. Thank you for this fascinating and enlightening conversation 🖤🙏🏽

Love this!! Thank you!

An unusual, unsettling picture, playing with Americans' inherited cultural and social expectations and slyly subverting them. I don't get a sense of celebration here--the children's faces seem defiant, and even sullen, and the too bright, candy-colored scene is unnerving in its unreality. And I can't shake a sense that the maternal figure's gesture with her right hand resembles a fascist salute.

Listen, I can accept my ban from the Smithsonian with dignity and grace, but I don't need this Alejo fellow with the long curls getting me banned from my beloved Crystal Bridges.. 😂👀 I like the title and birds with ribbon. It reminds me of watching TV Land re-runs in my mom's room at night growing up. Makes me think of "a simpler time." There's no assumption of whiteness, lol. Even in Black television, the stage is set for light-skinned leads and dark-skinned, milk-chocolate people like me on the periphery. I do feel underrepresented, so it's kinda surreal seeing *black* black in this piece. Midnight black. It hits different... I do wish their expressions matched what they're doing. Their bodies seem to suggest youthful whimsy, but their faces and sending a very different message... I see mistrust and defensiveness. I'd love to see the finished version of this.