Kerry James Marshall, Henry Louis Gates Jr (2020). Photo courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Nearly 50 years later, in 2020, the university offered Gates an honorary degree.

In 2018, Marshall’s grandiose P ast Time, 1997 piece was scale and deep hue personified. It was also rewarded as such after Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs purchased it for a staggering $21 million at a ...