Paris has a new reason to book an autumn trip. From September 18, 2026 to January 24, 2027, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris will host the first major exhibition in France dedicated to Kerry James Marshall, the American painter born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1955 and widely regarded as one of the most influential artists working today.

The show, titled Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, arrives in Paris after being conceived with the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. It gathers around 70 works spanning more than four decades of Marshall's career — mostly paintings, alongside prints, drawings and sculpture borrowed from museums and private collections across North America and Europe. Eight new paintings have been created especially for the exhibition, and the artist himself has been involved in its organisation.

What makes Marshall worth planning around? His large-scale canvases put Black figures at the centre of compositions that borrow from the grand traditions of Western painting — particularly 19th-century French art — while pulling in Afrofuturism, comic books and science fiction. He takes themes as heavy as the Middle Passage and the legacies of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, yet refuses to depict violence head-on. Instead, he lifts everyday life to something epic, inserting Black subjects into art-historical archetypes where they've long been absent. The result is work that rewards slow looking, whether you're a regular gallery-goer or just want one unforgettable museum hour on a city break.

There's a nice thread of continuity here too. With this show, the Musée d'Art Moderne extends its track record of pioneering monographic exhibitions of Black American artists in France — it staged Kara Walker in 2007 and Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2010.

For travellers, the timing is convenient. The run stretches from mid-September through late January, covering the shoulder season and the festive period, so it slots easily into a Paris city break at almost any point in autumn or winter. Pair it with the museum's permanent collection of modern masters, then walk the nearby Seine quays or head up to the Arc de Triomphe — you're in the 16th arrondissement, moments from some of the city's most pleasant strolling. If contemporary art is your thing, Centre Pompidou and the Bourse de Commerce make natural companions on the same itinerary.

Tickets for exhibitions of this calibre tend to sell out in peak slots, so booking online ahead of your trip is wise. And if you can only choose one, a weekday morning visit will give you the breathing room these dense, detailed paintings deserve.

Story first reported by France Today.