Skip to main content

This exhibition is no longer on view. See what’s on at SAM.

Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas

Feb 15–May 13 2018

Seattle Art Museum

Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas brings together the works of three singular American artists whose work redefines history painting in a contemporary context. Bridging three generations and shaped by distinctive historic events, the large-scale tableaux of Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas open compelling perspectives on Black culture and representation in an ever changing social and political landscape. Though unique in style and subject matter, these artists are united by presenting counter-narratives to an art history dominated by European ideals. These alternative histories challenge and reinterpret the exulted lineage of history painting.

Born in Oakland, California, Robert Colescott (1925–2009) witnessed the Great Depression in his early years and later served in the Army during World War II. Several years of studies and teachings in France and Egypt following the war gave him an outside perspective and critical edge on the racial conflicts in the United States. The cartoon-like aesthetic of his earlier works take to task celebrated milestones in the history of painting from Van Eyck to Picasso. A decade later, he applies his boldly expressive style to stories that weave the fate of ordinary individuals into the fabric of stories weighed down by the colonial past. He poses his black subjects as observers, agents and narrators of an incomplete history, in need of revision.

Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) was born in Birmingham, Alabama; he and his family moved to the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1963, a formative time and place for the artist, who now lives and works in Chicago. Marshall’s paintings employ a gravitas that centers on black experiences. His commanding portraits and tableaux of recent years combine familiar representational forms, such as the portrait of the artist or the academic life-drawing class, with political references that frame deeply probing historical narratives.

Mickalene Thomas’ (b. 1971) monumental portraits and nudes of women recall the odalisques and muses familiar from a long line of European art history. Her figures do not lend themselves to passive consumption but are powerful agents who confront us. Material culture and the aesthetics of ornamentation play a central role in her work as she inflects and reimagines Matisse’s arabesques and quasi-cubist spaces through the aesthetics of contemporary fashion and style. The power dynamics shift profoundly as Thomas negotiates gender and sexuality through a contemporary female gaze.

Related events

Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas is organized by the Seattle Art Museum.

Special exhibitions at SAM are made possible by donors to
SAM Fund for Special Exhibitions

Lead Sponsors
Boeing

Seattle Art Museum Supporters

Lead Foundation Sponsor
The Robert Lehman Foundation

Major Sponsors
Baird
PHILLIPS

Supporting Sponsors
Margery Friedlander Exhibition Endowment
Max and Helen Gurvich Exhibition Endowment
Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman

Additional Support
Contributors to the SAM Fund

Support for Figuring History educational programs has been provided by the Peg and Rick Young Foundation.

Related events

Nothing to see here, check back soon!

See what’s on at SAM


What’s on at Seattle Art Museum

Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei

Mar 12–Sep 7 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder

Nov 20 2024–Jun 1 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Lessons from the Institute of Empathy

Mar 31 2018–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Selections from the Shirley Family Calder Collection

Nov 20 2024–Jun 1 2025

Seattle Art Museum

Diego Cibelli: Fiori dei Miei Habiti / La Montagne EnchantĂŠe

May 31 2024–May 10 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Yirrkala: Art from Australia’s Top End

May 10 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Impressionisms: The Global Nineteenth Century

Mar 27 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

SAM on Paper: Rembrandt’s Etchings

Mar 27 2024–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

American Art: The Stories We Carry

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Chronicles of a Global East

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Deities & Demons: Supernatural In Japanese Art

Oct 20 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Pacific Species

Dec 22 2022–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Cosmic Beings in Mesoamerican and Andean Art

Nov 10 2018–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Art and Life Along the Northwest Coast

Nov 26 2014–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Conscious Constructions

Apr 29 2011–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Only Connect: The Art of Devotion

Apr 29 2011–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Porcelain Room

May 5 2007–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Tariqa Waters: Venus is Missing

May 7 2025–Jan 5 2026

Seattle Art Museum

FriendsWithYou: Little Cloud Sky

Jun 27 2025–ongoing

Seattle Art Museum

Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism

Oct 23 2025–Jan 18 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest

Mar 5–Aug 2 2026

Seattle Art Museum

Samantha Yun Wall: 2024 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Opening Spring 2026

Seattle Art Museum