Visible Means of Support

©2009 Kerry James Marshall
Designed and directed by Kerry James Marshall.
Painted by Kerry James Marshall and Precita Eyes Muralists

The murals in SFMOMA's atrium depict Monticello and Mount Vernon, the homes of the American Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. These historical iconic landmarks have been depicted countless times, but, as artist Kerry James Marshall has pointed out, the slaves owned by America's Founding Fathers always seem to be absent. In this project, Marshall investigates history and its representation in works of art, challenging a number of our assumptions about the past even as he engages us in a visual game of seeking and finding the hidden meaning of each picture.

Looking carefully at the landscapes we can begin to make out the initially hidden heads and figures of slaves - suggested in the shadows cast by the presidents, and in the water behind Mount Vernon. In other areas of each picture the heads are arranged in dot patterns. If you connect the dots you can see more slaves who worked on these plantations. This game is one of many that the artist has generated for viewers of the murals, along with mazes and portraits of Washington and Jefferson in (distorted) anamorphic perspective. An African American artist, Marshall is particularly conscious of how people of color have been left out of the picture. Here he presents this dynamic as a puzzle leaving viewers to connect the dots and uncover another perspective.

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