Mark Bradford is not a painter. He recuperates the scraps of civilization such as posters and magazine pages that he shreds before gluing them on his canvases with a meticulous preparation of the balance of shapes and colors. Sometimes within the immensity of an artwork a detail of an image or a word remains from its original document by a voluntary irony of the artist.
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. He captures in his abstract art the limitless space of the Los Angeles districts just like Pollock once recorded the organic soil of Long Island.
On March 8 in London, Phillips sells Helter Skelter I, one of two works of this title made in 2007, lot 14 estimated £ 6M.
The title has a double meaning in recent social history. It is the song that pushed the Beatles and especially Paul McCartney into the style of hard rock in 1968. Unfortunately in Los Angeles this advance of the Beatles was used as an emblem by Charles Manson in his disgusting crusade for the extermination of the whites. This white leader of a sect wanted at that time to become the king of the negroes.
Helter Skelter I, 366 x 1036 cm, is sold 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.
SOLD for £ 8.7M including premium
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. He captures in his abstract art the limitless space of the Los Angeles districts just like Pollock once recorded the organic soil of Long Island.
On March 8 in London, Phillips sells Helter Skelter I, one of two works of this title made in 2007, lot 14 estimated £ 6M.
The title has a double meaning in recent social history. It is the song that pushed the Beatles and especially Paul McCartney into the style of hard rock in 1968. Unfortunately in Los Angeles this advance of the Beatles was used as an emblem by Charles Manson in his disgusting crusade for the extermination of the whites. This white leader of a sect wanted at that time to become the king of the negroes.
Helter Skelter I, 366 x 1036 cm, is sold 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.
SOLD for £ 8.7M including premium
The Mother of All Bradfords at Phillips in London + Another at Christie’s https://t.co/SGAEPPXItr pic.twitter.com/VX24XP3WIQ
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) February 9, 2018
In Conversation: #JohnMcEnroe and Josh Baer on #MarkBradford. Learn more about the monumental piece before it heads to auction in #London on 8 March: https://t.co/q6O1zU76Gn pic.twitter.com/KnWK2J72VI
— P H I L L I P S (@phillipsauction) February 22, 2018
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