Radiant and insurgent, Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled from 2008 is a profound and radical reappraisal of the discipline of figurative painting, accentuating and responding to the glaring omission of Black representation in the canon. Previously an iconic centerpiece of the artist's seminal 2016 exhibition Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, which opened at the Met Breuer, Untitled makes a triumphant return as part of Sotheby's inaugural Breuer exhibition, a defining moment of both auction and art world history. The presentation of this exquisite work at auction coincides with the largest exhibition dedicated to Kerry James Marshall ever staged outside of the United States, Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, demonstrating exceptional and enduring institutional support for the artist’s practice. A masterpiece of unparalleled formal rigor and graphic grandeur, Untitled is an entrancing embodiment of Kerry James Marshall’s revolutionary painterly practice.
This piece will be part of Sotheby’s Now & Contemporary Evening Auction on 18 November 2025 in New York.
