Study for "Great America" c. 1994

Here's Kerry James Marshall’s pen and ink Study for "Great America" on graph paper. Imagine Marshall sketching with a sense of urgency, the pen lines building up, adjusting, seeking out the forms. I'm thinking about what it's like to be him, working through an idea. Marshall is using the materiality of the pen to work out an initial idea on paper. You can see he's thinking about the composition, and the way the boats and people might fit within the picture frame. The marks, though simple, carry an energy, a movement. The composition is carefully considered, the subject matter is anything but. The blankness of the figures could suggest anything. There's a relationship to work by artists like Phillip Guston here. Ultimately, it's all about the push and pull of ideas, the give and take between the artist and the work. Like all good art, it’s an invitation to think, to feel, to question.