WHILE MARSHALL CENTERS HIS FIGURES BY DEPICTING THEM WITH IDENTITY, CREATING A NEW HIERARCHICAL ORDER LADEN WITH ENRICHED DETAILS, HE SUSPENDS THE DOMINANT REPRESENTATION OF WHITE FIGURES AND TRANSFORMS THE EXALTED BLACK FIGURES INTO TRANSCENDENT SUBJECTS. IN HIS PAINTINGS, MARSHALL GRAPPLES WITH A MASS OF IMAGES WHERE LIFESTYLES, EMOTIONS, BELIEFS, CULTURAL HABITS, AND DESIRES FOR EQUAL RIGHTS ARE ALSO ANALYZED - IT IS CERTAIN THAT HE IS ENGAGED IN A CREATIVE ACT THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY DEFEATS HIS OWN TRAUMAS.

the emotional wholeness of a black perception

In a continuity that preserves the original stances of his figures, Marshall stages and narrativizes the transition from one character to another almost with a cinematic flow, subjecting his paintings shaped by neo-modernist connections to an effective realist transformation by keeping them in the present time and space. This energetic circulation of figures that provides continuity in time can sometimes transform into a female painter with a color palette in her hand, and sometimes into a beautiful female idol lying on a boat. Here, one speaks of a transmission that makes daily excitement and emotions penetrate the viewer through conceptually exalted figure-images, rendered authentic, or of an imagination that questions the realistic-intellectual totality of the boundaries of things. The emotional wholeness of a Black perception that has become conceptual is presented as if conforming to a dream atmosphere or as a peaceful and performative utopian landscape, continuing to create internal shocks in the viewer.

Marshall thus develops here an experience of thinking upon cultural history and memory with the figures and the everyday mise-en-scènes he creates. In fact, it is interesting that the extent of this breadth of the relationship between human and nature or of socialization spaces is presented as the signifier of an emotional structure that transcends a theatrical order and does not leave the viewer indifferent. Indeed, as also seen in the pastoral effect that dominates the Garden Project series consisting of three paintings and in the desire for harmony and reconciliation expressed… Such paintings are undoubtedly the product of a structure entirely dedicated to peace aimed at purifying the souls traumatized by the race problem or by people’s psychic legacies. This pitch-black figure examination that continues with themes related to Afro-American history by the artist who insistently positions figures with art historical references at the center is actually the most important indicator of an ideological, technical, and Black cultural collage understanding and the desire to create conscious fictional heroes.

Therefore, while Marshall centers his figures by depicting them with identity, creating a new hierarchical order laden with enriched details, he suspends the dominant representation of white figures and transforms the exalted Black figures into transcendent subjects. In his paintings, Marshall grapples with a mass of images where lifestyles, emotions, beliefs, cultural habits, and desires for equal rights are also analyzed – it is certain that he is engaged in a creative act that simultaneously defeats his own traumas.