Vignette Suite

Provenance

The artist; sold through Jack Shainman Gallery, New York [copy of invoice in curatorial object file], to the Art Institute of Chicago, October 13, 2008.

Vignette Suite

Kerry James Marshall

2005/08

Accession Number

192885

Medium

Suite of five paintings: Vignette 2 (2005): acrylic on Plexiglas; Vignette 2.25 (2008); Vignette 2.50 (2008) and Vignette 2.75 (2008): acrylic on polyvinyl; Vignette 3 (2005): acrylic on Plexiglas

Dimensions

Each: 186 × 155 cm (73 1/4 × 61 1/16 in.); 186.1 × 155 cm (73 1/4 × 61 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Adeline Yates; Benjamin Argile Memorial, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Alfred and May Tiefenbronner Memorial, Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Prize, Pauline Palmer Prize, Broadus James Clarke Memorial, Norman Wait Harris Prize, William H. Bartels Prize, Joyce Van Pilsum, Laura T. Magnuson Acquisition, Ann M. Vielehr Prize, and Ada S. Garrett Prize funds; Flora Mayer Witkowsky Award for American Art; Boles C. and Hyacinth G. Drechney and Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Brower Prize funds; The Municipal Art League Prize for Portraiture; Marjorie and Louis Susman, Martin B. Cahn Prize, and Elisabeth Mathews funds

Background & Context

Background Story

Kerry James Marshalls Vignette Suite from 2005/08 is a suite of five paintings on Plexiglas and polyvinyl that represents the artists most ambitious engagement with the decorative tradition of the vignette, a form of ornamental border or framing device that Marshall here transforms into a vehicle for representing Black love and domestic intimacy with the formal ambition of Western art history. The five paintings, titled Vignette 2, 2.25, 2.50, 2.75, and 3, progress from the representational to the increasingly abstract, creating a sequence that demonstrates Marshalls ability to move between figuration and abstraction while maintaining his commitment to Black visibility at every point along the spectrum. The vignette format, with its associations of decorative embellishment and marginal illustration, is strategically chosen by Marshall as a form that has traditionally been associated with the ornamental rather than the monumental, the feminine rather than the masculine, and the marginal rather than the central, all categories that Marshall inverts by giving the vignette the scale and ambition of history painting. The acrylic on Plexiglas and polyvinyl medium provides the smooth, reflective surface that gives the paintings their poster-like clarity, while the unconventional supports of Plexiglas and polyvinyl distinguish them from the tradition of oil on canvas and reinforce Marshalls message that Black art belongs in the contemporary world of synthetic materials and digital reproduction, not in the museum of traditional painting.

Cultural Impact

The Vignette Suite is one of Marshalls most important works, representing Black love and domestic intimacy with a formal ambition that claims the entire history of Western art for Black subjects. The progression from figuration to abstraction across the five paintings influenced the development of contemporary figurative painting and the discourse on representation in American art.

Why It Matters

A suite of five acrylic paintings by Marshall on Plexiglas and polyvinyl progressing from figuration to abstraction, transforming the decorative vignette tradition into a vehicle for representing Black love and domestic intimacy with the formal ambition of history painting.