--- description: Kerry James Marshall is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Grant Hill wrote about the artist. title: Kerry James Marshall by Grant Hill: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe2e3e79502aded5/6988c33aab6d77f1f36adaa1/time-100-2017-kerry-james-marshall.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Kerry James Marshall by Grant Hill  Photograph by Broomberg & Chanarin For too long, the contributions of black people in American society have been ignored, marginalized and denied. Kerry James Marshall confirms and confronts those depictions and omissions with artistic flair, portraying everyday events in black lives. As the rest of the world learned through the stunning retro­spective exhibition “Mastry,” Kerry’s narrative paintings are direct, bold and in-your-face views of moments in our lives, and they cannot be ignored. Black is his dominant color, and his persistent, consistent and masterful use of it, in all its palettes, defines, engages and draws countless viewers to each creation. He forces people to assess the American experi­ence through the black experience. In so doing, he has established himself not only among the giants of the black art milieu, but as one of the most influential American artists anywhere. _Hill, a seven-time NBA All-Star, is a leading collector of African-American art_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/"},"headline":"Kerry James Marshall","datePublished":"2017-04-19T17:45:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.385Z","description":"Kerry James Marshall is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Grant Hill wrote about the artist.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe2e3e79502aded5/6988c33aab6d77f1f36adaa1/time-100-2017-kerry-james-marshall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe2e3e79502aded5/6988c33aab6d77f1f36adaa1/time-100-2017-kerry-james-marshall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/","name":"Kerry James Marshall"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736218/kerry-james-marshall/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```