Watts 1963
- Artist
- Kerry James Marshall, American, born 1955
- Date
- 1995
- Material
- Acrylic and collage on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 248
- Dimensions
- 115 3/8 x 135 7/8 in. (293.1 x 345.1 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum Minority Artists Purchase Fund
- Rights
- © Kerry James Marshall, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
- Object Number
- 190:1995
NOTES
This colorful, mural-sized canvas depicts Nickerson Gardens in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Artist Kerry James Marshall’s family lived there for two years after moving from Birmingham, Alabama. Marshall created Watts 1963 as part of his Garden Project, a series of five paintings that considers the irony of garden-named housing projects in Los Angeles and Chicago. The only autobiographical work of the series, Watts 1963 illustrates the artist at age eight, with his brother and sister. The children are placed under a festive banner carried by bluebirds of happiness bearing Alabama’s first state motto: “Here We Rest.” This painting reflects both the early optimism of the housing projects and the conditions of poverty, despair, and violence that eventually arose.
Provenance
1995
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
1995 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Jack Shainman Gallery [1]
Notes:
[1] Invoice dated October 5, 1995 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collection Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, October 26, 1995.
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
1995 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Jack Shainman Gallery [1]
Notes:
[1] Invoice dated October 5, 1995 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collection Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, October 26, 1995.