Having recently read about Kerry James Marshall, his work fascinated me and I wanted to explore more of his oeuvre. I stumbled across this one called “Past Times,” painted in 1997 and relevant in 2018 because it sold for $21.1 million at a Sotheby’s event earlier this year. Strokes of acrylic paint create the texture for the rolling water and the grassy hills. Objects at the forefront–the picnic basket, the sleeping dog, the spewing fountain–are pieces of collage and visibly impose themselves onto the surface, gaining a three-dimensional authenticity. The three main figures all stare directly at the viewer, their steely gazes in weird contrast with their recreational activities. Their pleated, eggshell white attire simultaneously evokes a country club chic and the dour reverence of black Christian river baptisms. Marshall crowds his canvas with high-end commercial products, filling a space that would be otherwise empty as the red-brick urban sprawl lies in the distance. This is an assembly of black people undisturbed and well-off, yet still alert to the gaze that has been imprinted on their consciousness. “Past Times” takes on a double meaning, both referring to the pleasures of leisure and the pain of history, a history that temporal distance heals on the surface but leaves scars as reminders. The painting lingers in the mind because the group’s blackness is so stark, so unavoidable. Other colors seem more faded, causing the work itself to feel more dated, harkening back to black art from other 20th century eras. Marshall’s work here marks an inflection point, both the turn of a new millennium and the new age of black buying power. We see a nod to a future of potential, but are still forced to remember its foundations.