Kerry James Marshall's "De Style"

Kerry James Marshall’s 1993 painting De Style is a layered work that references both African American communal life and the history of modernist art. In this painting, Marshall depicts a barbershop in South Central Los Angeles while also alluding to the European avant-garde movement De Stijl. As a result, the work brings together past and present, as well as different cultural contexts, within a single frame.

The Barbershop: A Cultural Oasis

As a young man, Marshall worked at Percy’s House of Style, a barbershop where he shined shoes and swept floors. This experience gave him direct insight into the idea of a “safe space” within African American communities. Barbershops and beauty salons are not just places for grooming; they are also hubs of social life, spaces of cultural transmission, and, as some scholars call them, “sanctuaries” for Black communities. Often referred to as “the church for non-believers,” these spaces serve as informal centers of community life.

With De Style, Marshall elevates the barbershop beyond a mere refuge, presenting it instead as a vibrant cultural and aesthetic stage. The painting highlights the energy, creativity, and playfulness of this environment. The diversity and originality of the hairstyles underscore themes of individuality and self-expression.

A Nod to De Stijl and Modernism

The title of the work directly references the De Stijl movement (founded in 1917), led by artists like Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. This group pursued utopian ideals and sought to unify art and life in the aftermath of World War I, embodying hopes for a harmonious new order. By invoking De Stijl, Marshall draws a parallel between these ideals and the creative resilience of African American culture.

The geometric structure and bold color blocks in the painting echo De Stijl’s aesthetic. Yet Marshall recontextualizes this modernist vocabulary within an everyday Black cultural scene, bringing the universalist claims of modernism into dialogue with a specific social reality. This fuses historical ideals with contemporary lived experience.

Identity, Unity, and Individuality

Each figure in the painting stands out with a distinctive, eye-catching hairstyle. This variety signals personal identity and self-fashioning. At the same time, the figures’ shared gazes and poised postures convey a sense of collective unity. In this way, Marshall makes both individual and communal identity visible at once. This sense of unity resonates with De Stijl’s ideal of integrating life and art.

Rather than emphasizing the gang violence and social unrest often associated with South Central Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Marshall offers a counter-image—a space of creativity and solidarity. In De Style, the barbershop becomes a site of possibility, an emblem of resilience and hope.

Conclusion: A Modern Classic for Today

De Style elevates the symbolic significance of the barbershop within African American culture while also reframing the history of modernist art. Marshall’s painting fuses past and present, linking the ideals of Western avant-garde movements with the lived practices of Black communities. This layered approach allows the work to function not just as a scene of everyday life but also as a manifesto on cultural identity, individuality, and collective belonging.

In these ways, Kerry James Marshall’s De Style stands as a groundbreaking and timeless work within 1990s painting—both formally and conceptually.