{"data":{"id":"11971","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":11971,"topgoose_id":8239,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":11971,"title":"Souvenir IV","display_artist_text":"Kerry James Marshall","display_date":"1998","accession_number":"98.56","dimensions":"Overall: 107 5/8 × 157 1/2 in. (273.4 × 400.1 cm)","medium":"Acrylic, glitter, and screenprint on paper on tarpaulin, with metal grommets","department":"collection","classification":"Paintings","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eKerry James Marshall, \u003cem\u003eSouvenir IV\u003c/em\u003e, 1998. Acrylic, glitter, and screenprint on paper on tarpaulin, with metal grommets, overall: 107 5/8 × 157 1/2 in. (273.4 × 400.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 98.56. © Kerry James Marshall; courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery, New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eThe 13-foot-wide \u003ci\u003eSouvenir IV\u003c/i\u003e, painted in grisaille on unstretched canvas and shown pinned to the wall like a ceremonial banner,\u003ci\u003e \u003c/i\u003eis one of a series of four works dedicated to cultural figures and Civil Rights leaders who died in the 1960s, most but not all of them African-American. At its center is a scroll listing important musicians; cloud-haloed heads above trumpet other artists, and additional figures are named in the banderoles at the upper margin. On a sofa in a well-appointed living room (based on those of Kerry James Marshall’s relatives and friends) sits a dignified older black woman, her bearing so calm that it is easy to overlook the massive pair of wings on her shoulders. If much of the text in \u003ci\u003eSouvenir IV\u003c/i\u003e is elegiac—especially the message “We Mourn Our Loss” at bottom—the image of this woman adds a note of poignant celebration. Marshall’s work sidesteps conventional or condemnatory summaries of African-American experience. Instead, he explores the rarely acknowledged optimism that flourishes amid difficult circumstances and the pride that outlives mourning for fallen heroes.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Person sitting on sofa in decorated room with memorial list of musicians and \"We Mourn Our Loss\" text.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T16:20:20.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T06:00:17.650-04:00","images":[{"id":102729,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/11971/98_56_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"4817","type":"artist"}]}}}}