"There are no tyrannies that would not try to limit art, because they can see the power of art. Art can tell the world things that cannot be shared otherwise. It is art that conveys feelings."

 - Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine 

Kerry James Marshall

(c)image: Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, and Koplin Del Rio, CA
Two Invisible Men Naked, 1985
Painting , 152.4 x 203.2 cm
two panels, acrylic, paper

In the diptych Two Invisible Men Naked (1985) Marshall was inspired by the characters played by Claude Rains in the film The Invisible Man (1933), placing them alongside one another. On the right-hand panel the white representation is almost invisible, reduced to near complete monochrome. On the left-hand panel we see his invisible black double painted in a reductive style, come emphatically to the fore from the dark background, mainly because of the white of the eyes and teeth. In this work, Marshall looks to discuss the social invisibility of the black subject within the binary relation of opposing colours – black and white.