The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of January 24, 2026
Untitled (Exquisite Corpse Snowman)
2022
(American, b. 1955)
Sheet: 60.8 x 47.8 cm (23 15/16 x 18 13/16 in.)
Gift of Agnes Gund 2023.7
© Kerry James Marshall
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
This drawing is one of numerous paintings, prints, and drawings that Kerry James Marshall created on the theme of Exquisite Corpse beginning in 2021.Description
For over forty years, Kerry James Marshall has mined the history of painting to address its omission of Black subjects. This drawing belongs to a series based on Exquisite Corpse, a parlor game popular among 1920s Surrealist artists in which participants contribute to a drawing without knowing its subject or appearance. Marshall’s composition features three levels presenting the politician Shirley Chisholm, a snowman, and a fashionably dressed woman with a tiny dog in her bag. Together, they seem intended to serve as a reflection on Black female identity. Marshall specifically avoided providing his own interpretation, leaving each viewer to bring their own meaning to the work.- 2022Kerry James Marshall (the artist) [1955-]2022–23(Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OHMarch 6 2023-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- "New on View.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 63, no. 4 (2023): Back cover. Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover archive.org
- New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2023-April 14, 2024).
- {{cite web|title=Untitled (Exquisite Corpse Snowman)|url=false|author=Kerry James Marshall|year=2022|access-date=24 January 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.7