Mark BRADFORD (born in 1961)
Intro
Mark Bradford had his first job in the hair salon of his mother in Leimert Park, a residential area of Los Angeles which is also a focal point of the local African-American culture. An abstract artist, he finds the material of his art in the wasted prospectus with brilliant colors that he finds in the store. This African American desired to react against the lack of political meaning of the US abstract paintings, defining his theme as "social abstraction".
Bradford does not paint. He sticks, scratches off and erases the mixed materials that he had collected, paper and plastics, until the color balance becomes beautiful. His art is a blast, as were once the paintings by Joan Mitchell. Cutaways and shears unveil the lower strata, bringing an impression of decay.
Mark Bradford is fascinated by the maps but he appreciates that they are lying, to transmit the ideas and social priorities of the cartographer. He realizes tight patterns that look like city maps but are not identifiable to any neighborhood. Less dense areas give the illusion of the boundaries of the urban area.
The art of Bradford is assimilated in a movement named Post-Black, meaning that in the opposite of Basquiat the claim is more social than racial, and also more intellectual than violent. He is close to the statement by David Hammons regretting that blacks must adapt to an industrial civilization that was created against their will.
Bradford does not paint. He sticks, scratches off and erases the mixed materials that he had collected, paper and plastics, until the color balance becomes beautiful. His art is a blast, as were once the paintings by Joan Mitchell. Cutaways and shears unveil the lower strata, bringing an impression of decay.
Mark Bradford is fascinated by the maps but he appreciates that they are lying, to transmit the ideas and social priorities of the cartographer. He realizes tight patterns that look like city maps but are not identifiable to any neighborhood. Less dense areas give the illusion of the boundaries of the urban area.
The art of Bradford is assimilated in a movement named Post-Black, meaning that in the opposite of Basquiat the claim is more social than racial, and also more intellectual than violent. He is close to the statement by David Hammons regretting that blacks must adapt to an industrial civilization that was created against their will.
2004 Method Man
2021 SOLD for $ 6M by Sotheby's
In 2004 Mark Bradford managed to apply his collage techniques in large scale, sourcing his tiny paper material in the streets. Los Moscos, 320 x 480 cm currently housed by the Tate Gallery, is an early example of these kaleidoscopic works looking in an overall viewing like an unlimited city map. The title refers to the proliferation of mosquitoes in Los Angeles.
Method Man, mixed media on canvas 320 x 305 cm including discarded posters, newsprint, magazines and endpapers, was also executed in 2004. The pseudo map is dense, in vibrant colors simulating an aerial perspective of Los Angeles well lit by orange and yellow neon flashes.
It was sold for $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 19, 2021, lot 10.
Method Man, mixed media on canvas 320 x 305 cm including discarded posters, newsprint, magazines and endpapers, was also executed in 2004. The pseudo map is dense, in vibrant colors simulating an aerial perspective of Los Angeles well lit by orange and yellow neon flashes.
It was sold for $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 19, 2021, lot 10.
2005 Black Venus
2018 SOLD for $ 6.1M by Phillips
Black Venus follows in 2005. The title is questioning the race of the beloved goddess. This mixed media collage 315 x 460 cm was sold for $ 6.1M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Phillips on May 17, 2018, lot 11. The regular rectangular elements mimic the view of buildings from the sky. The shape of the overall figure may look biomorphic.
In 2006 the dark Scorched Earth, 240 x 300 x 5.7 cm, currently in the Broad Museum, directly warns for a collapse of social life.
In 2006 the dark Scorched Earth, 240 x 300 x 5.7 cm, currently in the Broad Museum, directly warns for a collapse of social life.
2007 Helter Skelter
1
I
2018 SOLD for £ 8.7M by Phillips
The agglomeration of Los Angeles is gigantic. Mark Bradford was born there.
At the lower end of the current civilization, the city is characterized by its scraps of colored papers that the artist collects, glues and shears. Its huge surfaces are a succession of tiny details, sometimes incorporating images. It is impossible to see everything in a single inspection. From a distance, the artwork appears as an endless district seen from the sky, with its entangled streets.
Bradford is an African-American. The titles of his works call for a social rather than racial reading, against the abuses of civilization towards the poor classes. Helter Skelter, for example, had been a political-racial motto of Charles Manson, the abominable White mass murderer who proclaimed himself the king of the Negroes. It is intentional : a previous artwork was titled Scorched Earth.
Helter Skelter is a suite of two artworks prepared in 2007 for an exhibition in New York in 2008. Despite their considerable size, 366 x 1036 cm for Helter Skelter I and 376 x 1107 cm for Helter Skelter II, they were displayed side by side.
Helter Skelter I was sold for £ 8.7M on March 8, 2018 by Phillips, lot 14.
It had been consigned by John McEnroe after it had covered a wall in his apartment. The enfant terrible of tennis became a gallerist in 1993 and also once tried to become a rock star. On the courts he was known for his winning aggression, with the characteristic very rare at his level to have never had a coach. McEnroe's interest in Bradford's art is a tribute to the energy of the artist. It entered after the sale in the permanent collection of the Broad Museum in Los Angeles.
Helter Skelter is also the song that pushed the Beatles and especially Paul McCartney into the style of hard rock in 1968.
At the lower end of the current civilization, the city is characterized by its scraps of colored papers that the artist collects, glues and shears. Its huge surfaces are a succession of tiny details, sometimes incorporating images. It is impossible to see everything in a single inspection. From a distance, the artwork appears as an endless district seen from the sky, with its entangled streets.
Bradford is an African-American. The titles of his works call for a social rather than racial reading, against the abuses of civilization towards the poor classes. Helter Skelter, for example, had been a political-racial motto of Charles Manson, the abominable White mass murderer who proclaimed himself the king of the Negroes. It is intentional : a previous artwork was titled Scorched Earth.
Helter Skelter is a suite of two artworks prepared in 2007 for an exhibition in New York in 2008. Despite their considerable size, 366 x 1036 cm for Helter Skelter I and 376 x 1107 cm for Helter Skelter II, they were displayed side by side.
Helter Skelter I was sold for £ 8.7M on March 8, 2018 by Phillips, lot 14.
It had been consigned by John McEnroe after it had covered a wall in his apartment. The enfant terrible of tennis became a gallerist in 1993 and also once tried to become a rock star. On the courts he was known for his winning aggression, with the characteristic very rare at his level to have never had a coach. McEnroe's interest in Bradford's art is a tribute to the energy of the artist. It entered after the sale in the permanent collection of the Broad Museum in Los Angeles.
Helter Skelter is also the song that pushed the Beatles and especially Paul McCartney into the style of hard rock in 1968.
2
II
2019 SOLD for $ 8.5M by Phillips
Helter Skelter II was sold for $ 8.5M by Phillips on May 16, 2019, lot 24. One of the illustrations in the catalog allows to scroll the image, revealing the complexity of the altogether figurative and abstract artistic language of Mark Bradford.
2007 Boreas
2018 SOLD for $ 7.6M by Christie's
Mark Bradford includes sex in his social abstraction, by reference to titillating Greek deities. Black Venus, executed in 2006, is an early large size example, 315 x 460 cm.
Boreas, the raper of Orithyia, follows in 2007 in the same technique, also as a centered abstract city map that could be considered as biomorphic.
This mixed media collage on canvas 260 x 365 cm was sold for $ 7.6M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 20B. Black Venus was sold on the same day for $ 6.1M by Phillips, lot 11.
Boreas, the raper of Orithyia, follows in 2007 in the same technique, also as a centered abstract city map that could be considered as biomorphic.
This mixed media collage on canvas 260 x 365 cm was sold for $ 7.6M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 20B. Black Venus was sold on the same day for $ 6.1M by Phillips, lot 11.
2007 Ghost Money
2020 SOLD for $ 7.3M by Christie's
Ghost Money is a highly suitable phrase for the social activism of Mark Bradford against poverty. In all its meanings it is bad for the working classes. It alludes to the deceiving flyers that promise easy cash, debt relief and food assistance. It is a slang for unavailable funds in a bank account, already set aside for incoming bills. It also refers to the clandestine cash supplied by a government to control a hostile foreign country.
Ghost Money, collage on canvas 258 x 365 cm executed in 2007, was sold by Christie's for $ 3.64M on May 13, 2015, lot 34 B and for $ 7.3M on October 6, 2020, lot 33. Its tiny intricate collages including torn bits of newsprint, merchant posters and comic books are erased like a palimpsest to reveal the true ghost money detritus whose accumulation constitutes the glorious satellite map of the big city.
Ghost Money, collage on canvas 258 x 365 cm executed in 2007, was sold by Christie's for $ 3.64M on May 13, 2015, lot 34 B and for $ 7.3M on October 6, 2020, lot 33. Its tiny intricate collages including torn bits of newsprint, merchant posters and comic books are erased like a palimpsest to reveal the true ghost money detritus whose accumulation constitutes the glorious satellite map of the big city.
2007 Spinning Man
2019 SOLD for $ 5.8M by Sotheby's
The pseudo map arrangement of Spinning Man is joining a countryside element with ponds and a city tissue.
This mixed media collage on canvas 183 x 213 cm executed by Bradford in 2007 was sold for $ 5.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019, lot 15.
This mixed media collage on canvas 183 x 213 cm executed by Bradford in 2007 was sold for $ 5.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019, lot 15.
2012 Promise Land
2019 SOLD for $ 7.5M by Christie's
Consumerism and money, expressed by billboards, advertisements and other signage, have invaded all districts without considering that their inhabitants in poverty will never take any benefit of these virtual promises.
Within a signature city map background, Promise Land, executed by Mark Bradford in 2012, includes repetitive legible inscriptions such as SOBER/LIVING, WOMEN MEN, PROMISE LAND and some numerals, dispositioned in strictly horizontal lines in a half erased bleeding red. This legibility superseding the tiny paper fragments brings Bradford in the follow of the letter art by Ruscha, Basquiat and Wool.
This mixed media collage on canvas 260 x 370 cm was sold for $ 7.5M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 4B.
In his recently developed word art, Mark Bradford executed in 2013 a series of four works copying phrases from the US constitution and a series of ten copying in turn the ten original amendments of the Bill of Rights.
The text in white on strict regular horizontal lines is made illegible by its surrounding of detritus, suggesting that these basic texts of US politics have been faded and obsoleted, no more in line with modern life. The loss of readability made them compared with palimpsests.
Constitution IV, mixed media on canvas 335 x 305 cm, was sold for £ 3.8M by Phillips on October 14, 2015, lot 21.
The first amendment is forbidding the Congress to prohibit the freedoms of speed, religion and assembly. Amendment 1, mixed media on canvas 122 x 152 cm, was sold for $ 5.1M by Christie's on May 11, 2021, lot 10A.
Within a signature city map background, Promise Land, executed by Mark Bradford in 2012, includes repetitive legible inscriptions such as SOBER/LIVING, WOMEN MEN, PROMISE LAND and some numerals, dispositioned in strictly horizontal lines in a half erased bleeding red. This legibility superseding the tiny paper fragments brings Bradford in the follow of the letter art by Ruscha, Basquiat and Wool.
This mixed media collage on canvas 260 x 370 cm was sold for $ 7.5M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 4B.
In his recently developed word art, Mark Bradford executed in 2013 a series of four works copying phrases from the US constitution and a series of ten copying in turn the ten original amendments of the Bill of Rights.
The text in white on strict regular horizontal lines is made illegible by its surrounding of detritus, suggesting that these basic texts of US politics have been faded and obsoleted, no more in line with modern life. The loss of readability made them compared with palimpsests.
Constitution IV, mixed media on canvas 335 x 305 cm, was sold for £ 3.8M by Phillips on October 14, 2015, lot 21.
The first amendment is forbidding the Congress to prohibit the freedoms of speed, religion and assembly. Amendment 1, mixed media on canvas 122 x 152 cm, was sold for $ 5.1M by Christie's on May 11, 2021, lot 10A.
In the next year Mark Bradford superseded to the text some images selected by him on the internet which were gradually destructed by his creative process. The theme may include the US glory of Wild West and Civil War. The horizontal lines are replaced by polyester cords in bright colors.
Bear running from the Shutgun (an alteration from shotgun) is made of 41 parallel equidistant stretched ropes entrenched in a pseudo-calligraphic background made of abraded and sanded layers of paper. This mixed media on canvas 213 x 274 cm executed in 2014 was sold for £ 3.8M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 30.
In the follow, Bradford completed in 2017 for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC the monumental cyclorama Pickett's Charge inspired from the Gettysburg cyclorama executed in 1883. He used ropes for the line design over a layer in fluorescent pixelated paper buried under 5 to 10 layers of store bought paper. Each layer takes about a week to put on and dry. The total length is about 120 m.
Bear running from the Shutgun (an alteration from shotgun) is made of 41 parallel equidistant stretched ropes entrenched in a pseudo-calligraphic background made of abraded and sanded layers of paper. This mixed media on canvas 213 x 274 cm executed in 2014 was sold for £ 3.8M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 30.
In the follow, Bradford completed in 2017 for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC the monumental cyclorama Pickett's Charge inspired from the Gettysburg cyclorama executed in 1883. He used ropes for the line design over a layer in fluorescent pixelated paper buried under 5 to 10 layers of store bought paper. Each layer takes about a week to put on and dry. The total length is about 120 m.
2015 The Next Hot Line
2021 SOLD for $ 5.8M by Christie's
From about 2012 Mark Bradford prepares his work by drawing lines that will shape the image.
Smear, executed in 2015, is a continuous assembly of horizontal lines excepted two large adjacent triangles of vertical lines on the left edge. This geometry makes loose any comparison with a city map. This mixed media and collage 244 x 183 cm was sold for $ 4.4M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015, lot 1.
Also made in 2015, The Next Hot Line was included in that year in a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. This mixed media on canvas 214 x 275 cm was sold for $ 5.8M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 29A. This picture is built on a pattern of intersecting curved lines, like wide streets within a city map made of dwellings and of park dots, in a mesmerizing burst of colors emerging from bulk grey and black.
Smear, executed in 2015, is a continuous assembly of horizontal lines excepted two large adjacent triangles of vertical lines on the left edge. This geometry makes loose any comparison with a city map. This mixed media and collage 244 x 183 cm was sold for $ 4.4M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015, lot 1.
Also made in 2015, The Next Hot Line was included in that year in a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. This mixed media on canvas 214 x 275 cm was sold for $ 5.8M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 29A. This picture is built on a pattern of intersecting curved lines, like wide streets within a city map made of dwellings and of park dots, in a mesmerizing burst of colors emerging from bulk grey and black.
2018 Speak, Birdman
2018 SOLD for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's
Mark Bradford had a long exhibition history with the Studio Museum in Harlem, beginning in 2001 in the period of his use of papers collected in the hairdressing salon.
A signature unlimited city map was prepared in 2018 and sold at Sotheby's by courtesy of the artist and of Hauser and Wirth to benefit the project of a new building of the Studio Museum. It fetched $ 6.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M on May 16, 2018, lot 1.
The title, Speak, Birdman, refers to the vertical view of a city by a flying bird with an additional idea of intelligence.
A signature unlimited city map was prepared in 2018 and sold at Sotheby's by courtesy of the artist and of Hauser and Wirth to benefit the project of a new building of the Studio Museum. It fetched $ 6.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M on May 16, 2018, lot 1.
The title, Speak, Birdman, refers to the vertical view of a city by a flying bird with an additional idea of intelligence.
