{"data":{"id":137125,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/137125","is_boosted":true,"title":"Many Mansions","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBgAFAPQAAFJEOV9cVXRJQmBVUnNiQ2ltVmJiWWlrXGd6Zm9zanBzbnpwbHZ7cJF\/YY6MfZV\/gJaMjJGbiZWYj56Wl5KglZuUoKObo62go6yto7emqb+0ucW+s8q\/tODo3QAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAGAAUAAAUYYGVpE5cJVycRjbFgDEJFx1AAwaMkG+SEADs=","width":10256,"height":8754,"alt_text":"Painting of three black youths gardening, residential towers loom in the background."},"main_reference_number":"1995.147","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":4,"date_start":1994,"date_end":1994,"date_display":"1994","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Kerry James Marshall\nAmerican, born 1955","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"<p><em>Many Mansions<\/em> is the first in Kerry James Marshall\u2019s series of five large-scale paintings depicting public housing projects in Chicago and Los Angeles such as Rockwell Gardens, Wentworth Gardens, or, as in <em>Many Mansions<\/em>, Stateway Gardens. Struck by the absurdity of the term \u201cgarden\u201d to describe these failed solutions to low-income housing, Marshall was inspired to represent the profound contradictions of living in such an environment. <em>Many Mansions<\/em> is filled with ironic and startling juxtapositions of the real and artificial\u2014from the unnaturally cheerful landscape to the three haunting, ebony-skinned figures dressed in nostalgic Sunday best. The title of the painting, visible on the red ribbon above, is a variation on Christ\u2019s oft-quoted remark found in John [14:2]: \u201cIn my Father\u2019s house there are many mansions.\u201d<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"289.6 \u00d7 342.9 cm (114 \u00d7 135 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":342,"height":289,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Acrylic on paper mounted on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Max V. Kohnstamm Fund","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Madeleine Grynsztejn and Dave Hickey, About Place: Recent Art of the Americas, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), 31, 101, pl. 35 (color ill.), 125, pl. 39 (by error).\n\nCatherine David, Documenta X: Short Guide, exh. cat. (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz, 1997), 304.\n\nAndrea D. Barnwell, \u201cPortfolio,\u201d in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, no. 2 (1999), 81, 82, no. 28 (color ill.).\n\nJames Cuno, Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 148 (color ill.).\n\nJames Cuno, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 165 (color ill.).\n\nJessie L. Whitehead, \u201cInvisibility of Blackness: Visual Responses of Kerry James Marshall\u201d Art Education 62, no. 2 (March 2009): 36, fig. 2 (ill.).\n\nJeff Wall and Kathleen S Bartels, Kerry James Marshall, exh. cat. (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2010), 24-25 (color ill.), 49.\n\nHelen Molesworth, Ian Alteveer, Dieter Roelstraete, Lanka Tattersall, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, exh. cat. (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications, 2016), 35, (color ill.), 50, fig. 19 (color ill., detail), 134-35, cat. 29 (color ill.), 262.\n\nCharles Gaines, Greg Tate, and Laurence Rassel, Kerry James Marshall (London: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2017), 56 (color ill.), 158. \n\nJames Rondeau, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2017), 169 (color ill.).\n\nBenjamin Buchloh, Aria Dean, Darby English, Mark Godfrey, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Cath\u00e9rine Hug, Nikita Sena Quarshie, and Rebecca Zorach, Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2025), 62, 63 (color ill.), cat. 22, 66-67, cat. 22 (color ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 186 (color ill.).","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, American Painting and Sculpture 76th Annual: About Place: Recent Art from the Americas, Mar. 11\u2013May 21, 1995, no cat. no.\n\nKassel, Germany, Museum Fridericianum, Documenta X, June 21\u2013Sept. 28, 1997, no cat. no.\n\nVancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery, Kerry James Marshall, May 8, 2010\u2013Jan. 10, 2011, no cat. no. \n\nMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, Apr. 23\u2013Sept. 25, 2016, cat. 29; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 25, 2016\u2013Jan. 29, 2017, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Mar. 12\u2013July 3, 2017.\n\nLondon, Royal Academy of Arts, Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Sept. 20, 2025-Jan. 18, 2026, cat. 22; Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich, Feb. 27-Aug. 16, 2026; Paris, Mus\u00e9e d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, Sept.18, 2026-Jan. 24, 2027.","provenance_text":"The artist; sold through Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, July 10, 1995.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":246,"fiscal_year":1996,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":49.369,"color":{"h":3,"l":52,"s":72,"percentage":0.034269144589429285,"population":208},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":"<p>On loan to Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich in Z\u00fcrich for <i>Kerry James Marshall<\/i><\/p>","gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Contemporary Art","department_id":"PC-8","artist_id":47905,"artist_title":"Kerry James Marshall","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[47905],"artist_titles":["Kerry James Marshall"],"category_ids":["PC-8","PC-142","PC-154","PC-831","PC-830"],"category_titles":["Contemporary Art","African American artists","Chicago Artists","Essentials","African Diaspora"],"term_titles":["public housing","painting","painting (image making)","paper (fiber product)","contemporary","projects","African American","Black culture","gardens","birds","flowers","text","trees","acrylic paint","modern and contemporary art","Chicago"],"style_id":"TM-12062","style_title":"contemporary","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-12062"],"style_titles":["contemporary"],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-155"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-155"],"classification_titles":["painting","modern and contemporary art"],"subject_id":"TM-12270","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12271","TM-12272","TM-12273","TM-12274","TM-11211","TM-10482","TM-12260","TM-11205","TM-12075"],"subject_ids":["TM-12270","TM-12271","TM-12272","TM-12273","TM-12274","TM-11211","TM-10482","TM-12260","TM-11205","TM-12075"],"subject_titles":["public housing","projects","African American","Black culture","gardens","birds","flowers","text","trees","Chicago"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":["TM-2407"],"material_ids":["TM-2982","TM-2407"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)","acrylic paint"],"technique_id":"TM-3891","alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["African American artists","Chicago Artists","Essentials","African Diaspora"],"image_id":"d94d0e3d-5d89-ce07-ee0f-7fa6d8def8ab","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Many Mansions","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1995.147"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Many Mansions"],"weight":16458,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-07-11T00:30:19-05:00","updated_at":"2026-07-11T03:40:31-05:00","timestamp":"2026-07-12T01:53:42-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.14"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}