Vignette Suite

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.

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.

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.