We take a look at what is being said about this new exhibition that explores the Black figure through the lens of contemporary art.
The Guardian: **** “There are great and unsettling things here. Kerry James Marshall’s figures and subjects are almost unrelievedly, densely black. Marshall paints a black woman on a bed, as if she were lit by a powerful white spotlight. Except she remains a silhouette, the disc of light entirely failing to illuminate her (look closer – the supposed oval of light is a white towel placed beneath her). In another work, a black painter works on her own, paint-by-numbers self portrait. There’s no black on her palette. Marshall’s art is all about depictions of blackness and what it means to be a black artist in a historically white institution and art world.”
Time Out: **** “It’s hard to pinpoint what this show is trying to say other than ‘there are good Black painters’, which is a statement that’s jarringly obvious. But it’s also absolutely, brilliantly true, and seeing a major art institution celebrating that fact is no bad thing, especially when the work looks so completely at home on its walls.”
Evening Standard: **** “The presence of just one work by Ofili, Forrester, Crosby and others is something of a tease; I wanted the show to go on far beyond its limits here. And the exhibition design by JA Projects, though elegant and distinctive, feels too fussy when the works need no help in making their impact. Otherwise, what a stellar, stirring achievement. “
The Telegraph: **** “This exhibition reflects the ascendancy of a new artistic establishment – black artists today aren’t marginalised, they’re mainstream.”
iNews: **** “The Time Is Always Now unfolds in many directions, exploring many themes. It attends to the conventions and stereotypes according to which Black people are portrayed in visual culture and offers counter positions. It engages with episodes in Black history that were left un-commemorated by grand paintings in great museums, and beyond that, asks which lives and which histories deserve commemoration. It is playful, acerbic, fantastical and challenging, positioning the Black figure at the centre of brilliantly experimental work.”
The FT: “A compelling transatlantic survey of painting urges the viewer to look at society differently.”
The Time is Always Now is on display at the National Portrait Gallery until the 19th May 2024.