I asked Tyler Cann, curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art, to select a work for this month’s article.
Cann joined the museum in 2013. He has been a curator at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England, and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Zealand.
Kerry James Marshall, The Land That Time Forgot, 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, 97 x 75 inchesMuseum Purchase, The Shirle and William King Westwater Fund and the Derby Fund
“We don’t often associate contemporary art with grand history painting, but this work by Kerry James Marshall, The Land That Time Forgot (1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, 97 inches by 75 inches), is a poignant allegory of the Dutch colonization of South Africa dating back to the 17th century and a real gem of the CMA collection. A seemingly martyred antelope lies in the midst of a tulip field; on the rocks behind are images of San rock art, a very ancient tradition, overlaid with references to gold, diamonds and uranium – raw materials that became the economic drivers of colonial power,” he says.
“The struggle against the oppressive and racially divisive Apartheid system was just coming to a head in the early 1990s. Nelson Mandela was only released from prison in 1990, for example. For me, that is living memory, and the work stands as a reminder of how the anti-Apartheid movement galvanized people across the world. Kerry James Marshall was born of African-American descent in Birmingham, Ala. in 1955, and it’s clear how those seemingly faraway events would resonate personally. The work is going to be on loan for a while to an important exhibition in New York and Los Angeles, but I can’t wait to put it up again here in Columbus.”
Marshall’s works are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Studio Museum of Harlem; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. His work has also been shown at the Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennale and National Gallery of Art.
Such is the demand for his work that his paintings are hard to acquire. Luckily for us, Cann found this painting and guided the Columbus Museum of Art through the acquisition period.
Marshall has another Columbus connection, having completed a Wexner Center for the Arts residency. He visited again in 2014 for the exhibition Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
