Untitled (Man)

Kerry James Marshalls Untitled (Man) from 2017 is a woodcut in brown and black on white wove paper that represents the artists translation of his signature style of deep black representation into the graphic medium of woodcut, one of the oldest and most direct forms of printmaking. The woodcut technique, in which the image is carved into a block of wood and printed in relief, produces bold, graphic marks that are determined by the carving process rather than by the brushwork that characterizes Marshalls paintings, creating a productive tension between the artists commitment to unmodulated black skin tones and the tonal limitations of a two-color woodcut. The brown and black ink on white paper is a deliberate choice: the black provides the deep skin tones that Marshall has made his signature, while the brown provides the midtones that give the figure sculptural volume and presence. The title Untitled (Man) signals Marshalls strategy of naming: by refusing a specific name for his subject, he makes the figure both particular and universal, a specific Black man who is also representative of Black masculinity in general. The year 2017 places this woodcut in the period of Marshalls greatest public recognition, following his major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and MOCA Los Angeles, and the woodcut medium allowed him to make his work accessible to a wider audience than the paintings alone could reach.

Marshalls woodcuts extend his project of Black representation into the democratic medium of printmaking, making his work accessible to collectors who cannot afford his paintings. Untitled (Man) exemplifies his strategy of combining deep black representation with the formal ambition of Western art history, now translated into the ancient medium of woodcut.

A 2017 woodcut by Marshall in brown and black on white paper, translating his signature deep black representation into the graphic medium of woodcut with bold carving that maintains the sculptural presence and formal ambition of his paintings.