Kerry James Marshall, one of America's most prominent contemporary painters, has premiered a provocative new series of paintings that explore the complex and often overlooked role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. The works are featured in his comprehensive survey exhibition "Kerry James Marshall: The Histories" at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, marking a bold artistic examination of historical narratives that challenge conventional perspectives on slavery.
The controversial paintings are displayed in a section titled "Africa Revisited," positioned toward the end of the exhibition. According to wall labels at the Royal Academy, these works address "challenging moments in the recorded history of Africa, not often represented by artists." Marshall explained in an interview with the Guardian that these topics are frequently ignored "because they don't fit the narrative of white people evil, black people good. It doesn't fit."
Among the most striking pieces is "Abduction of Olaudah and His Sister" (2023), which depicts the kidnapping of 18th-century writer Olaudah Equiano from Nigeria when he was just 11 years old. The painting draws from Equiano's 1789 memoir "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," which detailed how children in his village were constantly vigilant for kidnappers while adults were away working. Marshall uses this historical account to illustrate the broader network of African participation in the slave trade.
In his Guardian interview, Marshall emphasized the complexity of the slave trade system, noting that Equiano "passed through a complex network in which he didn't see a white man until he got on the boat." The artist stressed that "that's the slave trade too. It's not just the boats. It's not just the trip across the Atlantic. It's everyday people who wanted some value from whatever was transpiring during the slave trade, people who participated as freelancers to get what they could."
This isn't Marshall's first exploration of slavery's brutal history. The exhibition also features five paintings from the early 1990s that focused on the Middle Passage, displayed earlier in the show. According to exhibition wall text, Marshall understands this "history in fragments, and accordingly composes paintings with disparate images, motifs and textures" to capture the complexity of these historical events.
The new works present a starkly different visual narrative, showing "confident Black people acting with agency." Three paintings displayed together – "Outbound," "Haul," and "Cove" (all 2025) – depict Black individuals transporting Black captives in canoes to slave ships, sailing back with their profits, and returning to shore in celebration. The wall text explains that these figures are "shown having sold slaves, driven by their greed for the consumer goods that Europeans supplied in exchange."
Marshall defended his artistic approach, telling the Guardian that "it's easier to create boogeymen and scapegoats" and "it's also easy not to take responsibility for being a part of any of that. It's always somebody else." He emphasized a central theme in his work: "I think this is critical: in all of the works I do, black people have agency." This exhibition continues Marshall's career-long commitment to presenting complex, nuanced portrayals of Black historical experiences rather than simplified narratives of victimization.
