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Lot Essay
“I’m a builder and a demolisher. I put up so I can tear down. I’m a speculator and a developer. In archaeological terms, I excavate and I build at the same time".
- Mark Bradford
Executed in 2014, the present work stems from Mark Bradford’s distinctive series of hanging sculptures. Created using the same methods as his celebrated canvases, these works extend his so-called “social abstraction” into new territory. As a young man, Bradford was inspired by the works of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg, but less so by the medium of oil paint. Seeking to connect his works to the socio-political landscape, he began to experiment with materials sourced from his neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles - paper, newsprint, old advertisements, maps - layering them on wet canvas with shellac, string and caulking before attacking the surface with power sanders and a variety of other destructive tools. The results were unpredictable strata of pattern and color, appearing before the viewer like fossilized remains of society’s fabric. For his series of hanging sculptures, Bradford wrapped his canvases into a three-dimensional balloon-like forms. Resembling buoys cast out at sea, or bulbs extracted from the ground, these works exude a hypnotic, otherworldly presence.
By this stage in his career, Bradford had achieved widespread acclaim, establishing a reputation that would ultimately lead him to represent America at the 2017 Venice Biennale. 2013 saw the launch of his pioneering project Art + Practice, providing different kinds of social and artistic support to the local community. The following year, he was invited to create a major sculptural commission, Bell Tower, for the Los Angeles International Airport. His engagement with three-dimensional media during this period may be seen as a natural counterpoint to his canvas works, which - with their thick built-up surfaces - are inherently sculptural by nature. Under the title Sea Pigs, works from the present series featured in his major solo exhibition at the Rose Art Museum in Massachusetts, travelling to the Gemeentemuseum den Haag in the Netherlands in 2015. A further group, entitled The Loop of Deep Waters, was shown at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, which currently houses the largest collection of these sculptures.
- Mark Bradford
Executed in 2014, the present work stems from Mark Bradford’s distinctive series of hanging sculptures. Created using the same methods as his celebrated canvases, these works extend his so-called “social abstraction” into new territory. As a young man, Bradford was inspired by the works of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg, but less so by the medium of oil paint. Seeking to connect his works to the socio-political landscape, he began to experiment with materials sourced from his neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles - paper, newsprint, old advertisements, maps - layering them on wet canvas with shellac, string and caulking before attacking the surface with power sanders and a variety of other destructive tools. The results were unpredictable strata of pattern and color, appearing before the viewer like fossilized remains of society’s fabric. For his series of hanging sculptures, Bradford wrapped his canvases into a three-dimensional balloon-like forms. Resembling buoys cast out at sea, or bulbs extracted from the ground, these works exude a hypnotic, otherworldly presence.
By this stage in his career, Bradford had achieved widespread acclaim, establishing a reputation that would ultimately lead him to represent America at the 2017 Venice Biennale. 2013 saw the launch of his pioneering project Art + Practice, providing different kinds of social and artistic support to the local community. The following year, he was invited to create a major sculptural commission, Bell Tower, for the Los Angeles International Airport. His engagement with three-dimensional media during this period may be seen as a natural counterpoint to his canvas works, which - with their thick built-up surfaces - are inherently sculptural by nature. Under the title Sea Pigs, works from the present series featured in his major solo exhibition at the Rose Art Museum in Massachusetts, travelling to the Gemeentemuseum den Haag in the Netherlands in 2015. A further group, entitled The Loop of Deep Waters, was shown at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, which currently houses the largest collection of these sculptures.