Unveiling spotlights a recently completed portrait commission or figurative work from some of the most renowned artists of today. This month, Kimberly Azzarito, assistant director of the Portrait Society, interviewed Ernest Shaw Jr. about his recently completed portrait commission of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Unveiling

Ernest Shaw Jr. on Painting Justice Thurgood Marshall

By Kimberly Azzarito

This past January, Ernest Shaw Jr.’s portrait of Justice Thurgood Marshall as a young lawyer was unveiled at the Maryland senate office building in Annapolis. Born in Baltimore in 1908, Marshall was a celebrated civil rights lawyer who helped end segregation in the United States and went on to become the first Black United States Supreme Court Justice. Shaw, an artist and teacher from west Baltimore, was selected for the commission through a process that was led by Maryland State Senator William C. Smith of Montgomery County. Senator Smith raised the funds for the portrait with the guidance of artist, curator and art historian Dr. Leslie King Hammond, alongside a panel of experts assembled by the Maryland State Archives.

Ernest Shaw Jr., Young Thurgood, acrylic, 60 x 40"

“The selection committee emphasized the need for the portrait to illustrate Thurgood Marshall as a young, aspirational, hungry, not yet famous, but dignified none-the-less attorney,” explains Shaw. “To achieve this, the senator wanted the composition to show dignity in its simplicity. He asked that the background have no iconography and simply be one basic hue. The figure is centered in the composition and is thin-framed with a somewhat baggy suite and tie. This image of a young Marshall was taken after his first notable case against the University of Maryland in the 1935 case of Murray v. Pearson.”

Looking back on his early days as an artist, Shaw recalls, “My first attempt at a portrait was when I was 3 years old. I attempted to draw my mother’s profile while she watched daytime television in 1972, on a 13-inch, black-and-white television...I watched my mother paint, and being in her presence had the most impact on my desire to create.” In addition to his mother, Shaw admires and studies the work of Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, Jennifer Packer, Jenny Saville, Caravaggio, Barkley Hendricks, Alice Neel, Henry Taylor and Charles White.

“When I was much younger, I mistook success for fame and fortune,” says Shaw. “My definition of success was colored by acceptance of an art world that is driven by sales and exposure…Today, you can add likes, followers and shares to the mix. The best advice that I could give younger artists would simply be to do the work. By ‘doing’ I mean to research, study and surround yourself with creative people who do not wish to compete, and immerse yourself in the process of creating as often as possible. Do not waste time and do nothing to compromise your integrity.”

Currently, Shaw is working on a new series of large-format works inspired by Baltimore’s many young squeegee workers. “I hope to do my subjects justice by communicating pictorially their humanity by erecting large-scale paintings that engage the humanity of the viewer—any viewer,” he says. “The main message of my paintings is simple: people are just people. If you can get in touch with your own humanity, then you won’t have any problems seeing the humanity in my work.” —