Kerry James Marshall

Lost Boys: AKA BB

Lost Boys AKA BB is part of Marshall’s Lost Boys portrait series, which derives its name from the band of young orphaned characters in J.M Barrie’s book Peter Pan. Marshall reframes Peter Pan’s Neverland, presenting America as a place where oppression, incarceration, and death deprive young Black men of the opportunity to grow up. Through referencing the reverential, memorial forms of Ancient Egyptian funeral portraits and Renaissance icons, Marshall imbues his work with a tone of loss.

The emphasized blackness of Marshall’s figures directly responds to and counters a lack of representation in American Art, and the individualized details of Lost Boys AKA BB establish the sitter’s distinctive identity.