1991
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Doig Women artists Mitchell Marshall
See also : Doig Women artists Mitchell Marshall
masterpiece
1991 Hommage à Claude Monet by Zao Wou-Ki
private collection
Zao Wou-Ki had a lifelong quest for infinity represented by the asters in the sky. Pierre Matisse, his New York dealer and agent in the 1980s, managed to inspire him also from his figurative predecessors at the border of abstraction.
While his own work remained abstract, he introduced arched framings in front of his unlimited brawls of elements. In 1986 an Hommage à Henri Matisse is more precisely inspired from La Fenêtre Ouverte à Collioure. Henri Matisse was Pierre's father. His art also became brighter after he met Zhang Daqian in Taipei in 1983.
Then went Monet, both for his impressionist touch and for his theme of La Porte d'Aval in Etretat, the spectacular rocky arch that frames the view onto the Aiguille. 29.02.88, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm, is such an acbstract arch and sky composition. It was sold for HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on July 8, 2020, lot 1016. The monumental triptych Hommage à Claude Monet, 194 x 480 cm painted in 1991, is the culmination of that trend.
While his own work remained abstract, he introduced arched framings in front of his unlimited brawls of elements. In 1986 an Hommage à Henri Matisse is more precisely inspired from La Fenêtre Ouverte à Collioure. Henri Matisse was Pierre's father. His art also became brighter after he met Zhang Daqian in Taipei in 1983.
Then went Monet, both for his impressionist touch and for his theme of La Porte d'Aval in Etretat, the spectacular rocky arch that frames the view onto the Aiguille. 29.02.88, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm, is such an acbstract arch and sky composition. It was sold for HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on July 8, 2020, lot 1016. The monumental triptych Hommage à Claude Monet, 194 x 480 cm painted in 1991, is the culmination of that trend.
1991 DOIG
1
Rosedale
2017 SOLD for $ 29M by Phillips
Just after graduating as Master from the Chelsea School of Art, Peter Doig was awarded the Whitechapel Artist Prize with an invitation to prepare a solo exhibition to be held in August and September 1991 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
The young artist develops an entirely new vision of the scenery, taking altogether into account the techniques of Action painting and the color balances of abstract expressionism.
His effect of presence supported by the large size of the canvases is not based on a perspective but on the masking of the remote scenery by a pattern from nature or on the difficult interpretation of a reflection in water. The horizon is not useful in such compositions and disappears as from Monet's pond.
In the previous year his Swamps recreated an atmosphere inspired by the movies. In his preparation for the Whitechapel show, Doig reuses his own winter photos in the ravines of Rosedale, a suburb of Toronto populated by rich and sumptuous mansions.
The Architect's Home in the ravine reveals an opulent villa through the trunks and leafless branches of the forest, with a very meticulous work of lines and colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 12.
On May 18, 2017, Phillips at lot 9 for $ 29M an oil on canvas 200 x 240 cm simply titled Rosedale. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Even more than the Architect's Home, Rosedale opens the way to Doig's new style and technique. The classical logic would have required the building to be drawn before the elements that partially conceal it. Doig does the opposite. The image is also dotted in a white pointillism that expresses the cold of winter. The artist affirms his sensitivity to some winter scenes by Bruegel in which snow is everywhere without being preponderant.
The young artist develops an entirely new vision of the scenery, taking altogether into account the techniques of Action painting and the color balances of abstract expressionism.
His effect of presence supported by the large size of the canvases is not based on a perspective but on the masking of the remote scenery by a pattern from nature or on the difficult interpretation of a reflection in water. The horizon is not useful in such compositions and disappears as from Monet's pond.
In the previous year his Swamps recreated an atmosphere inspired by the movies. In his preparation for the Whitechapel show, Doig reuses his own winter photos in the ravines of Rosedale, a suburb of Toronto populated by rich and sumptuous mansions.
The Architect's Home in the ravine reveals an opulent villa through the trunks and leafless branches of the forest, with a very meticulous work of lines and colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 12.
On May 18, 2017, Phillips at lot 9 for $ 29M an oil on canvas 200 x 240 cm simply titled Rosedale. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Even more than the Architect's Home, Rosedale opens the way to Doig's new style and technique. The classical logic would have required the building to be drawn before the elements that partially conceal it. Doig does the opposite. The image is also dotted in a white pointillism that expresses the cold of winter. The artist affirms his sensitivity to some winter scenes by Bruegel in which snow is everywhere without being preponderant.
2
The Architect's Home in the Ravine
2018 SOLD for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's
The Architect's Home in the Ravine is an early masterpiece by Peter Doig. It was sold for $ 3.6M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, for £ 7.7M by Christie's on February 13, 2013, for £ 11.3M by Christie's on February 11, 2016, lot 18, and for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 12. Please watch the video shared in 2013 by Christie's.
Nature, even when it is wild, is influenced by humans, although such an interaction is sometimes difficult. Peter Doig is the best contemporary landscape painter. He creates some imaginary scenery from documents which may include photographs taken by himself.
Human figures are absent or discrete. The horizon is useless. The atmosphere is made of a subtle pattern of lines and colors by which the artist shows that he has assimilated various trends of modern art.
In 1991, aged 32, he is overwhelmed by the Cité Radieuse at Briey-en-Forêt near Metz, regarded 30 years earlier as a masterpiece by Le Corbusier. In the woods, this large dwelling unit had been difficult to maintain in its original purpose of social housing. It is threatened of destruction and rapidly loses its polychromy.
Through the tight branches, Doig may imagine everything : is the house still alive or already dead? Is it even yet accessible ? Now mixing this new emotion with his childhood memory in Canada he transfers the question onto another modernist house built by Eberhard Zeidler in a ravine at Rosedale near Toronto.
The oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm shows the imposing Rosedale house laid down in its small valley, offered or hidden through a dense network of winter twigs, similar as a figurative Pollock whose annihilation by the lines would not have been completed.
Nature, even when it is wild, is influenced by humans, although such an interaction is sometimes difficult. Peter Doig is the best contemporary landscape painter. He creates some imaginary scenery from documents which may include photographs taken by himself.
Human figures are absent or discrete. The horizon is useless. The atmosphere is made of a subtle pattern of lines and colors by which the artist shows that he has assimilated various trends of modern art.
In 1991, aged 32, he is overwhelmed by the Cité Radieuse at Briey-en-Forêt near Metz, regarded 30 years earlier as a masterpiece by Le Corbusier. In the woods, this large dwelling unit had been difficult to maintain in its original purpose of social housing. It is threatened of destruction and rapidly loses its polychromy.
Through the tight branches, Doig may imagine everything : is the house still alive or already dead? Is it even yet accessible ? Now mixing this new emotion with his childhood memory in Canada he transfers the question onto another modernist house built by Eberhard Zeidler in a ravine at Rosedale near Toronto.
The oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm shows the imposing Rosedale house laid down in its small valley, offered or hidden through a dense network of winter twigs, similar as a figurative Pollock whose annihilation by the lines would not have been completed.
3
Charley's Space
2018 SOLD for £ 11M by Christie's
In 1990 Peter Doig completes his studies at the Chelsea School of Art. He begins a painting on a daring theme that will bring together his two fascinations, for his own memory and for the strongest emotions of cinema. He associates the snowball and the Rosebud enigma of Citizen Kane to his childhood in Canada.
He constructs this work as a confrontation of worlds dominated by the central oval of a snowstorm that pushes back to the edges of his memory the cabin and the forest. The flakes are scattered on this veil altogether dark and slightly transparent. Blur enhances the dreamlike impression.
A school security agent named Charley watches and says "Huh, Space". He was seeing a starry sky and not a snowstorm. Far from discouraging the young artist, this erroneous but plausible interpretation excites his enthusiasm. The pictorial art does not reflect a reality but an emotion prepared by the artist and which can be perceived differently by the observer.
Completed in 1991 this 183 x 127 cm oil on canvas is titled Charley's Space. In 2003-2004 it will be used as the title of a solo exhibition in Maastricht : Peter Doig has not forgotten the involuntarily deep lesson received from his visitor. It was sold for £ 11M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 27. Charley's Space is introduced with another snow scene in the video shared by Christie's.
Monet knew how to show the transparent surface of his pond. Doig becomes the virtuoso of the falling snow, more or less dense, within more or less fog, but from then in a more homogeneous universe. Painted also in 1991 and reusing the same cabin and forest, Pink Snow 244 x 198 cm is conserved at the MoMA.
Painted in 1994, a scene in Cobourg is a culmination of this effect of blizzard ambience. This 200 x 250 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 12.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2017.
He constructs this work as a confrontation of worlds dominated by the central oval of a snowstorm that pushes back to the edges of his memory the cabin and the forest. The flakes are scattered on this veil altogether dark and slightly transparent. Blur enhances the dreamlike impression.
A school security agent named Charley watches and says "Huh, Space". He was seeing a starry sky and not a snowstorm. Far from discouraging the young artist, this erroneous but plausible interpretation excites his enthusiasm. The pictorial art does not reflect a reality but an emotion prepared by the artist and which can be perceived differently by the observer.
Completed in 1991 this 183 x 127 cm oil on canvas is titled Charley's Space. In 2003-2004 it will be used as the title of a solo exhibition in Maastricht : Peter Doig has not forgotten the involuntarily deep lesson received from his visitor. It was sold for £ 11M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 27. Charley's Space is introduced with another snow scene in the video shared by Christie's.
Monet knew how to show the transparent surface of his pond. Doig becomes the virtuoso of the falling snow, more or less dense, within more or less fog, but from then in a more homogeneous universe. Painted also in 1991 and reusing the same cabin and forest, Pink Snow 244 x 198 cm is conserved at the MoMA.
Painted in 1994, a scene in Cobourg is a culmination of this effect of blizzard ambience. This 200 x 250 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 12.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2017.
1990-1991 Sunflowers by Mitchell
2023 SOLD for $ 28M by Sotheby's
The sunflowers dazzled Joan Mitchell throughout her career, with a culmination when she became aging and ailing.
A group of blossom heads fills in parallel both sides of a diptych painted in 1990-1991 on a white background. The expressive immersion provides a synthesis of Joan's skills. This oil on canvas in two parts 280 x 400 cm overall was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 120.
A diptych 130 x 194 cm overall painted ca 1991 stages a flower bed of sunflowers from bloom to ground. It was sold for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 33 B.
A group of blossom heads fills in parallel both sides of a diptych painted in 1990-1991 on a white background. The expressive immersion provides a synthesis of Joan's skills. This oil on canvas in two parts 280 x 400 cm overall was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 120.
A diptych 130 x 194 cm overall painted ca 1991 stages a flower bed of sunflowers from bloom to ground. It was sold for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 33 B.
1991 Abstraktes Bild by RICHTER
1
747-1
2021 SOLD for HK$ 140M by Christie's
The Abstraktes Bild 747 is a set of 4 oils on canvas 200 x 200 cm painted in 1991.
Gerhard Richter is continuously exploring the vibrancy of colors, not without a reference to Rothko. He manages in the 747 to express the musicality in fully abstract compositions. A thick saturated scarlet impasto provides an incandescent perception.
The musical trial will be confirmed by the attribution of a Bach subtitle to the four monumental 300 x 300 cm Abstrakte Bilder 785 to 788 painted in 1992, with a more contrasted confrontation of colors.
747-1 was sold for £ 2.8M by Sotheby's on February 7, 2007, lot 17 and for HK $ 140M by Christie's on December 1, 2021, lot 6.
The incandescent reds are interrupted by flashes of yellow and green. A pale focusing vertical area is representing the lower paint layers and provides an effect of tridimensionality.
This opus had been selected by Richter for his retrospective solo exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1991.
Gerhard Richter is continuously exploring the vibrancy of colors, not without a reference to Rothko. He manages in the 747 to express the musicality in fully abstract compositions. A thick saturated scarlet impasto provides an incandescent perception.
The musical trial will be confirmed by the attribution of a Bach subtitle to the four monumental 300 x 300 cm Abstrakte Bilder 785 to 788 painted in 1992, with a more contrasted confrontation of colors.
747-1 was sold for £ 2.8M by Sotheby's on February 7, 2007, lot 17 and for HK $ 140M by Christie's on December 1, 2021, lot 6.
The incandescent reds are interrupted by flashes of yellow and green. A pale focusing vertical area is representing the lower paint layers and provides an effect of tridimensionality.
This opus had been selected by Richter for his retrospective solo exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1991.
2
747-2
2018 SOLD for $ 16.6M by Sotheby's
747-2 was sold for $ 16.6M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 16.
A focusing pale horizontal stripe supersedes a similar vertical field of the previous opus 747-1, assessing the experimental intention of the series for an increased depth effect.
In the -3 and -4 the lower layers look canceled.
A focusing pale horizontal stripe supersedes a similar vertical field of the previous opus 747-1, assessing the experimental intention of the series for an increased depth effect.
In the -3 and -4 the lower layers look canceled.
3
747-4
2014 SOLD for $ 21.4M by Sotheby's
747-4 was sold for $ 21.4M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2014, lot 8. The lack of secondary focusing hues makes this opus like a torrent of fire.
1991 Large Vase of Flowers by Koons
2024 SOLD for $ 8.2M by Christie's
After the great success of his two breakthrough exhibitions, Statuary in 1986 and Banality in 1988, Jeff Koons appreciates that other figures or toys much stylized and disproportionately enlarged will have a considerable impact on the public. That deliberate kitsch assault on taste is intended to please the bourgeois.
Large Vase of Flowers, a polychromed wood 132 x 110 x 110 cm, was edited in 1991 in three units plus one artist's proof in a top European sculpture craftsmanship. The kitsch effect is brought by large size, cartoonish exaggeration and buoyant colors.
The 1/3 was sold for $ 5.7M by Christie's on November 10, 2009, lot 8. The artist's proof was sold for $ 8.2M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 21, 2024, lot 11B.
The Made in Heaven exhibition was held simultaneously from November 1991 in Cologne and New York. The artist's proof was exhibited in Cologne. Heaven was an attempt to stage Adam and Eve in a lush surrounding of flowers through pictures of explicit sex of the artist with his risque newlywed wife Cicciolina. In that sense Koons' vase of flowers is an appeal for procreation.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 22, 2024
After lively bidding in the room and on the phones, Jeff Koons’ institutionally celebrated and critically acclaimed ‘Large Vase of Flowers’ blooms, achieving US$8,230,000 during our 21st Century Evening Sale in New York. #2021NY
Large Vase of Flowers, a polychromed wood 132 x 110 x 110 cm, was edited in 1991 in three units plus one artist's proof in a top European sculpture craftsmanship. The kitsch effect is brought by large size, cartoonish exaggeration and buoyant colors.
The 1/3 was sold for $ 5.7M by Christie's on November 10, 2009, lot 8. The artist's proof was sold for $ 8.2M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 21, 2024, lot 11B.
The Made in Heaven exhibition was held simultaneously from November 1991 in Cologne and New York. The artist's proof was exhibited in Cologne. Heaven was an attempt to stage Adam and Eve in a lush surrounding of flowers through pictures of explicit sex of the artist with his risque newlywed wife Cicciolina. In that sense Koons' vase of flowers is an appeal for procreation.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 22, 2024
After lively bidding in the room and on the phones, Jeff Koons’ institutionally celebrated and critically acclaimed ‘Large Vase of Flowers’ blooms, achieving US$8,230,000 during our 21st Century Evening Sale in New York. #2021NY
- The sale of Jeff Koons' "Large Vase of Flowers" for $8.23 million at Christie's 21st Century Evening Sale in November 2024 reflects a growing market for contemporary art, with Koons' works often fetching high prices due to his innovative use of materials like stainless steel and porcelain, as noted in a 2021 study from the Journal of Cultural Economics on art value drivers.
- This auction occurred amidst a notable shift in the art market, with Artsy's 2025 Art Market Trends report indicating that over 50% of galleries expanded online sales channels by early 2025, suggesting digital platforms influenced the visibility and pricing of pieces like Koons' vase.
- The artwork's vibrant, oversized floral design challenges traditional sculpture norms, aligning with Koons' history of provocative pieces, such as his 2013 "Balloon Dog" sold for $58.4 million, highlighting his ability to blend kitsch with high art, a trend supported by artnet's auction data tracking his consistent market success.
1991 Candies by Gonzalez-Torres
2015 SOLD for $ 7.7M by Christie's
The contemporary art gradually leaves the references to painting, sculpture and object. The installations invite the viewer for participation and modification. The Cuban born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres offers a synthesis between minimalism and accumulation, after Donald Judd and Carl Andre, before Ai Weiwei.
Homosexual activist, Gonzalez-Torres conceives his work as a sharing. Going up to a logical consequence of his approach, he states that a certificate of authenticity must be re-issued every time the work changes ownership. He provides the starting point of the element to accumulate, which the user may decrease or increase. The curator of the exhibition is invited to change at will the overall shape, after the anti-art sculptures by Lygia Clark.
In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres's creativity is exacerbated by the final AIDS of his partner which arouses in him some humanist thoughts. The artist will die of the same disease five years later.
An example is the stack of identical prints 72 x 109 cm that can be copied at will and to which the artist suggests an ideal height of 8 inches. This work was sold for $ 1.65M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011.
The accumulation of candies individually wrapped in their cellophane paper is the ultimate refinement of the art of Gonzalez-Torres and his most demanded theme on the art market. The removal of an element brings to the maker of the action the noise of the unwrapping and the sweet taste of the candy.
A work in light blue paper executed in 1992 with an ideal weight of 90 kg was sold for $ 4.6M by Phillips de Pury on November 8, 2010. Another variant carried out in 1991 in green paper with an ideal weight of 50 pounds was sold for $ 7.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 10, 2015, lot 43B.
Homosexual activist, Gonzalez-Torres conceives his work as a sharing. Going up to a logical consequence of his approach, he states that a certificate of authenticity must be re-issued every time the work changes ownership. He provides the starting point of the element to accumulate, which the user may decrease or increase. The curator of the exhibition is invited to change at will the overall shape, after the anti-art sculptures by Lygia Clark.
In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres's creativity is exacerbated by the final AIDS of his partner which arouses in him some humanist thoughts. The artist will die of the same disease five years later.
An example is the stack of identical prints 72 x 109 cm that can be copied at will and to which the artist suggests an ideal height of 8 inches. This work was sold for $ 1.65M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011.
The accumulation of candies individually wrapped in their cellophane paper is the ultimate refinement of the art of Gonzalez-Torres and his most demanded theme on the art market. The removal of an element brings to the maker of the action the noise of the unwrapping and the sweet taste of the candy.
A work in light blue paper executed in 1992 with an ideal weight of 90 kg was sold for $ 4.6M by Phillips de Pury on November 8, 2010. Another variant carried out in 1991 in green paper with an ideal weight of 50 pounds was sold for $ 7.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 10, 2015, lot 43B.
1991 Nat Shango by Kerry James Marshall
2021 SOLD for $ 7.5M by Christie's
Minorities demand a better life, in due course. Australians like referring to the rebel bushranger Ned Kelly. African Americans have their martyred hero, Nat Turner, who had led a rebellion of the slaves in Virginia in 1831.
Kerry James Marshall created Nat Shango, a hybrid of Turner and of the Yoruba warring god Shango whose attribute is the thunder. Of course he introduces this character into the modern world.
On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 7.5M Nat Shango (Thunder), a mixed technique of acrylic and collage on linen 187 x 142 cm executed in 1991, lot 12 A.
The life size front standing black man holds an axe in each hand like a lumber cutter. With his tattered clothing and bare feet, he is a slave ready to rebel. Nat Turner's revolution has indeed not yet been achieved.
The large folding screen behind him and the floor around him are prepared for displaying images. Half of these collage positions are empty while the other half are filled by the actual collage of the portrait heads of blonde women cut up from romance magazines. The floor is also a scenery of the houses and fields where the slaves were forced to live.
Nat Shango ignores the white actresses. Their sexual symbol is not suitable for the African Americans.
Grok thought :
Early Foundations: Nat-Shango (Thunder) and the Raw Intensity of Rebellion (1991)
Kerry James Marshall's Nat-Shango (Thunder), created in 1991 and sold at Christie's on May 11, 2021, for $7.5 million (lot 12A), marks an early pinnacle in his exploration of the "angry Black man" archetype. This large-scale acrylic, paper collage, and printed paper collage on linen (73½ × 55¾ inches) depicts a life-sized, barefoot Black man—modeled after Nat Turner, the enslaved preacher who led a violent 1831 rebellion in Virginia—standing defiantly before a felled tree stump. He wields two axes, his posture evoking both Yoruban thunder god Shango and an avenging angel, surrounded by collaged covers from Harlequin romance novels featuring idealized white women. The tree stump symbolizes the "lost potential" of enslaved generations, while the axes suggest brutal retribution against oppression.
This work embodies Marshall's early 1990s approach to the theme: visceral, folkloric, and unapologetically confrontational. Drawing from his Birmingham, Alabama, upbringing amid civil rights turmoil and his Los Angeles years near Black Panther headquarters, Marshall channels raw historical fury. The "angry Black man" here is a martyred hero, blending African spiritual traditions with American enslavement narratives to critique racial erasure. As Marshall noted in a 2005 conversation, his developmental experiences demanded he "speak about" systemic violence, making Nat-Shango a mixed-media homage to Black resistance—fierce, chaotic, and layered with irony through the romantic collages that juxtapose white fantasy against Black rage.
The painting's explosive energy—intense colors, flat forms, and decorative excess—echoes outsider art traditions, turning Turner's rebellion into a visual thunderclap that demands visibility for Black pain and power.
Grok description :
Historical Figure
Nat Turner (1831 rebellion leader)
Visual Style
Mixed-media collage; flat, intense colors; folkloric chaos (axes, tree stump, romance novel cutouts)
Anger Expression
Explosive, vengeful; avenging angel with Yoruban thunder god fusion
Cultural Critique
Raw resistance to enslavement; irony via white romantic fantasies
Kerry James Marshall created Nat Shango, a hybrid of Turner and of the Yoruba warring god Shango whose attribute is the thunder. Of course he introduces this character into the modern world.
On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 7.5M Nat Shango (Thunder), a mixed technique of acrylic and collage on linen 187 x 142 cm executed in 1991, lot 12 A.
The life size front standing black man holds an axe in each hand like a lumber cutter. With his tattered clothing and bare feet, he is a slave ready to rebel. Nat Turner's revolution has indeed not yet been achieved.
The large folding screen behind him and the floor around him are prepared for displaying images. Half of these collage positions are empty while the other half are filled by the actual collage of the portrait heads of blonde women cut up from romance magazines. The floor is also a scenery of the houses and fields where the slaves were forced to live.
Nat Shango ignores the white actresses. Their sexual symbol is not suitable for the African Americans.
Grok thought :
Early Foundations: Nat-Shango (Thunder) and the Raw Intensity of Rebellion (1991)
Kerry James Marshall's Nat-Shango (Thunder), created in 1991 and sold at Christie's on May 11, 2021, for $7.5 million (lot 12A), marks an early pinnacle in his exploration of the "angry Black man" archetype. This large-scale acrylic, paper collage, and printed paper collage on linen (73½ × 55¾ inches) depicts a life-sized, barefoot Black man—modeled after Nat Turner, the enslaved preacher who led a violent 1831 rebellion in Virginia—standing defiantly before a felled tree stump. He wields two axes, his posture evoking both Yoruban thunder god Shango and an avenging angel, surrounded by collaged covers from Harlequin romance novels featuring idealized white women. The tree stump symbolizes the "lost potential" of enslaved generations, while the axes suggest brutal retribution against oppression.
This work embodies Marshall's early 1990s approach to the theme: visceral, folkloric, and unapologetically confrontational. Drawing from his Birmingham, Alabama, upbringing amid civil rights turmoil and his Los Angeles years near Black Panther headquarters, Marshall channels raw historical fury. The "angry Black man" here is a martyred hero, blending African spiritual traditions with American enslavement narratives to critique racial erasure. As Marshall noted in a 2005 conversation, his developmental experiences demanded he "speak about" systemic violence, making Nat-Shango a mixed-media homage to Black resistance—fierce, chaotic, and layered with irony through the romantic collages that juxtapose white fantasy against Black rage.
The painting's explosive energy—intense colors, flat forms, and decorative excess—echoes outsider art traditions, turning Turner's rebellion into a visual thunderclap that demands visibility for Black pain and power.
Grok description :
Historical Figure
Nat Turner (1831 rebellion leader)
Visual Style
Mixed-media collage; flat, intense colors; folkloric chaos (axes, tree stump, romance novel cutouts)
Anger Expression
Explosive, vengeful; avenging angel with Yoruban thunder god fusion
Cultural Critique
Raw resistance to enslavement; irony via white romantic fantasies
