Great America (painting)

Great America is a 1994 acrylic-and-collage-on-canvas painting by American contemporary artist and professor Kerry James Marshall.
Description.
From "Slow Painting":
Interpretation.
The National Gallery of Art, where "Great America" was exhibited in 2013, has described its meaning as: 
Writing about the painting in the "Wall Street Journal", Kelly Crow expands upon the idea of the canvas as an amusement park scene, with a group of black people aboard the "Tunnel of Love" boat ride. Crow explains:
The "Washington Post" said of the painting:
Marhsall himself has said "Great American" is about, "both the transatlantic slave trade and what it means for present-day black people to be Americans."
History.
The National Gallery of Art acquired the painting in 2011. "Great America" was the centerpiece of an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art entitled "In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall", which was on view from June to December 2013.
At least one study Marshall produced ahead of painting the final canvas for "Great America" was lost when a fire destroyed the Kent, Washington, D.C. home of art collector Peggy Cooper Cafritz.
Reception and influence.
Will Gompertz, writing for "BBC News", drew comparisons between "Great America" and Donald Glover's "This Is America" music video, saying of the video, "Its subject of race, representation, opportunity and acts of extreme violence against African Americans is shared with the work of several other leading contemporary black American artists...Kerry James Marshall's 1994 painting, "Great America", for instance."
"Chicago" magazine described the canvas as, "a tart, haunting rendering of the transatlantic slave trade as a ghastly carnival ride." "Complex" named "Great America" one of the greatest American paintings.