Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
October 2023
Kerry James Marshall has donated a portrait of prolific author, literary scholar and award-winning filmmaker Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. to the University of Cambridge.
The work is Marshall’s first ever formal, painted portrait of a living sitter (not including self-portraits), and is only the second work by the world-renowned American artist to join the collection of a public institution in the UK. Gates was the first African-American to be awarded a Paul Mellon Fellowship at Cambridge University in 1973 at the age of 22. Gates and Marshall, close friends, decided to create a portrait of Gates to be gifted to the University.
Learn more at the University of Cambridge.