The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Bang

Bang

1994
(American, b. 1955)
Unframed: 261.5 x 289.4 cm (102 15/16 x 113 15/16 in.)
© Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Did You Know?

It is a hallmark of Kerry James Marshall's work to explore blackness as a shade, an absence of light, a pigment, and a subject.

Description

One of Kerry James Marshall’s earliest and most iconic large-scale paintings, Bang depicts three Black children in a verdant suburban backyard, observing the Fourth of July. Invoking the grand tradition of European history painting, the work exemplifies Marshall’s commitment to, in the artist’s words, “representing Blackness in the extreme and letting it be beautiful.” Bang embodies Marshall’s dedication to a vision of American culture that includes and honors Black histories.
  • Contemporary Art Rotation - Spring 2022. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 1-September 25, 2022).
    Centennial Loan (Gallery 229): December 21, 2015 - March 28, 2016.
  • {{cite web|title=Bang|url=false|author=Kerry James Marshall|year=1994|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/3.2022