What specific motifs in Kerry James Marshall's Many Mansions refer to the African-American experience?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. It depicts African-American men gardening, inspired by the artist's observation that many American housing projects have the word "garden" in their names. An inscription in the painting refers to a specific building on Chicago's South Side.
2. The African-American men are gardening in shirts with ties, an ironic comment on the impossibility of transforming this urban place into a garden and a contradiction of the false negative image of the African-American male.
3. A ribbon is inscribed "In my mother's house there are many mansions," adapting the passage from the Gospel of John ("In my father's house. . . .") to refer to the matriarchal structure of urban African-American culture.
4. Easter baskets embody hope and also project crass commercialism.