Description
History painting, considered the highest form of painting for centuries, went out of fashion in the 19th century with the rise of impressionism and modernism. The tradition has been reinvigorated in the works of American contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall. In this talk we’ll look at why history painting was considered by Italian Renaissance painters the highest genre, how artists like Jacques Louis David infused new moral and political power into that tradition, and why modernists rejected it. How does Kerry James Marshall reclaim history painting to add new stories to the Western art historical canon?
