KERRY JAMES MARSHALL

A new work by the American artist, presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

as part of BNLMTL 2016, The Grand Balcony

October 19, 2016, to January 29, 2017 Contemporary Art Square, Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S2

Montreal, October 18, 2016 – The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is pleased to present the American artist KERRY JAMES MARSHALL for the first time in Montreal. As part of BNLMTL 2016, The Grand Balcony, the MMFA is presenting a new chapter from Rythm Mastr, the artist’s well-known project, with a new series of illustrations displayed in lightboxes. Considered one of the most important American artists of his generation, Kerry James Marshall questions the depiction of African-Americans in culture and in art history. Over the past thirty-five years, he has produced a complex body of work, from painting to comic strips. Creating portraits, interiors, nudes and landscapes in various mediums, Marshall conflates actual and imagined events from African-American history and culture, and integrates a variety of stylistic influences to address the limited historiography of African-American art. For the BNLMTL 2016, The Grand Balcony, the MMFA’s Contemporary Art Square is presenting seven new lightboxes created by the artist, a continuation of his work Rythm Mastr. Written in vernacular, this comic strip features an urban superhero who fights the forces of evil using a combination of futuristic and traditional African accoutrements. “The Rythm Mastr project has been under development since 1999, first as an installation and then as a conceptual project titled Dailies, comprising three cartoon strips: Rhythm Mastr, P-Van- and On the Stroll. These overlapping comics all take place in ‘Black Metropolis’ – the long dreamed-of

capital of the ‘Black World’ – and are written in Black vernacular English. The comics form provides a vehicle for talking about all manner of subjects,”1 explained the artist. “Alongside our Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective, which celebrates the beauty of the body – black or white – in a post-segregation America, Kerry James Marshall’s work drives home the point. His scathing commentary on present-day racial inequality, on the steps of a leading museum of modern art and with the recent opening of a major museum of African-American history and culture in Washington, is right on the mark,” said Nathalie Bondil, the Museum’s Director General and Chief Curator. “We’re really delighted to work with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to present the work of an artist of Marshall’s stature. He has made a vital and unique contribution to contemporary art,” added Sylvie Fortin, General and Artistic Director, La Biennale de Montréal. The MMFA’s presentation coincides with MASTRY, a major retrospective of Marshall’s work at the MET Breuer in New York, on display from October 25, 2016, to January 29, 2017. Credits and curatorial The exhibition is presented at the MMFA by the Biennale de Montréal, in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as part of BNLMTL 2016, The Grand Balcony. The exhibition is curated by Philippe Pirotte, curator of BNLMTL 2016, The Grand Balcony, in collaboration with Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, Curator of Quebec and Canadian Art (1945 to today), holder of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair at the MMFA, under the direction of Nathalie Bondil, the Museum’s Director General and Chief Curator. Acknowledgements The exhibition has received support from the RBC Foundation, the Young Philanthropists Circle, the Museum’s Volunteer Association and Air Canada. The MMFA also thanks the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec for its vital contribution, as well as the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the Canada Council for the Arts for their sustained support. The Museum thanks its Volunteer Guides for their tireless efforts, and all of its members, and the many people, companies and foundations that provide support, including the Fondation de la Chenelière headed by Michel de la Chenelière, and the Arte Musica Foundation, under its president, Pierre Bourgie, for their generosity.

About the artist Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, Kerry James Marshall lives and works in Chicago. His paintings, sculptures and installations have been exhibited around the world. Marshall was awarded the Rosenberger Medal (2016), the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2014), a grant from the MacArthur Foundation (1997) and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1991). Since 2013, he has been one of the appointees to President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities After the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2016), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is presenting Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, major retrospective of his paintings. In 2015, Marshall completed his first public commission for New York City, a large mural for the High Line, a former elevated railway that has been converted into an aerial greenway. Entitled Above the Line, the mural is inspired by his comic strip project, Rythm Mastr. In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp, presented a Marshall retrospective that travelled to the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen the following year, and was presented jointly at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (2013); Secession, Vienna (2012); the Vancouver Art Gallery (2010); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009); the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2008); the Camden Arts Centre, London (2005); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2003) and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1998) have also presented monograph exhibitions of his work. Marshall’s works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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Photos: Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (detail), 2016. Photo: MMFA/Jean-François Brière ©Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Kerry James Marshall. Photo: Felix Clay. Courtesy of David Zwirner, London

Media tours | October 18, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Individual tours of the exhibition, accompanied by Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, Curator of Quebec and Canadian Art (1945 to today), holder of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair at the MMFA, will take place at the Museum on October 18. Interested journalists are invited to contact the MMFA’s media relations department.

Press release and visuals: mbam.qc.ca/media Source and information: Patricia Lachance Press Officer | MMFA T. 514-285-1600, ext. 315 C. 514-235-2044 plachance@mbamtl.org

Elisabeth-Anne Butikofer Press Officer | MMFA T. 514-285-1600, ext. 205 C. 514-272-4653 ebutikofer@mbamtl.org

About the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The MMFA welcomes a million visitors each year. Quebec’s most visited museum, it is one of the most popular museums in Canada and ranks twelfth among art museums in North America. Its innovative temporary exhibitions combine artistic disciplines (fine arts, music, film, fashion and design) and are circulated to museums around the world. Its encyclopedic collection, which is on display in four – soon-to-be five – pavilions, includes international art, world cultures, decorative arts and design and Quebec and Canadian art. The Museum complex includes a concert hall. The MMFA is also one of Canada’s leading publishers of art books in English and French, which are distributed internationally. The Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, the largest educational complex in a North American art museum, will be housed in the future Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, which will be inaugurated in November 2016. Follow us:

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1 Kerry James Marshall, quoted in Esopus magazine, 2010