Study Notes on Kerry James Marshall's "School of Beauty, School of Culture"

Artist: Kerry James Marshall
Description: A complex painting depicting a beauty school or salon primarily filled with Black people, notably women.

Left Side:
  - Two women seen from behind.
    - One seated and one standing.
    - They are looking into a heart-shaped mirror alongside another mirror.
Right Side:
- A complex cluster of people, with significant action centered around a figure in a salon chair, possibly receiving hair treatment.
- Woman in a red coat looks out at the viewer with surprise.
Foreground Details:
  - Woman in striped pants and yellow shirt in a pinup pose.
    - Her body language includes bent knees, curved back, and one arm on her waist while the other is behind her head.
  - Presence of a camera flash in the mirror, indicating she is posing.
  - Another woman bends over to observe her reflection in the mirror.
  - Two toddlers in the foreground:
    - One in blue overalls and another in a pink onesie.
  - Notable inclusion of a disconnected, distorted head of a white woman.
Visual Elements:
- Multiple textures and images in the background including abstract flooring patterns, varied fabrics, posters, and photographs.

Education:
- Studied in Los Angeles in the 1970s when figurative painting was considered undesirable.
- Art world, particularly white male dominated, deemed painting effectively "dead".
Marshall's Work:
- Combines elements from historical and contemporary cultural fields in a bold, monumental style.
- Encourages comparisons with historically significant works like Raphael's The School of Athens.

Both Paintings:
  - Size: School of Beauty is 9 feet high and 13 feet long.
  - Both are multi-figure compositions depicting groups engaged in activities: beautification (Marshall) vs. philosophy (Raphael).
  - Combination of living figures with inanimate signifiers of cultural values (e.g., sculptures in Raphael's work vs. modern cultural references in Marshall's).
Differences:
  - School of Beauty features fewer figures and a shallower pictorial space.
  - Subject Composition:
    - School of Athens: exclusively male figures.
    - School of Beauty: predominantly Black women.
  - Historical context of representation is significant: Marshall focuses on underrepresented Black subjects versus the historical dominance of white subjects.

Historical Context:
- Marshall's inspiration from Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, which addresses the double vision regarding Blackness in America.
- The struggle of Black individuals being rendered invisible in historical narratives and art; often portrayed only in contexts of trauma or servitude.
Marshall's Commitment:
- Aim to depict Black figures as empowered and beautiful.
- Describes his subjects as exemplars of unapologetic, non-negotiable Blackness.
Literal Representation of Blackness:
- Use of three distinct black pigments (carbon black, mars black, and ivory black).
- Challenges the norm of avoiding black paint in favor of other tones, affirming the importance of portraying Blackness authentically.

The setting of the beauty salon serves to highlight the importance of this space in the everyday lives of many African Americans.
School of Beauty is reflective of culture, history, and beauty standards, intertwining with broader art historical narratives.

Reference to Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533):
- Depicts two young men amidst symbols of wealth and knowledge, with an anamorphic skull as a memento mori representing mortality.
- In Marshall's painting, this skull is replaced by a white woman's head, representing prevailing beauty standards based on white supremacy rather than mortality.
Interaction of Figures:
- Toddlers engaging with the distorted head in a conscious manner, examined for their reactions towards beauty standards of white womanhood.
- Their behaviors complicate interpretations of beauty and cultural values, highlighting the lived experiences of Black women.

Artistic Techniques:
- Floor and salon chair exhibit abstraction alongside their literal representations.
- The style resonates with American abstract painters like Frank Stella and Mark Rothko.
Marshall's Purpose:
- Merges Euro-American painting traditions with African American cultural expressions and experiences to convey deeper narratives and values.

Marshall's School of Beauty invites viewers to reassess traditional ideas of beauty and the significance of Black culture within art history.
The painting celebrates the complexity and richness of Black lives and cultural experiences, asserting their rightful place within the grand narrative of art.