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Lot Essay
Derek Fordjour’s Rhythm & Blues is a heady mix of method and media, and its unique composition evokes the vibrant and energetic improvisations of jazz. Its texture entices the viewer, drawn into the composition by its vibrant admixtures of orange, gold, and blue. The mural-like scale envelops the audience like musical notes echoing through city streets; Rhythm & Blues resonates with so much momentum that it comes to life, reminding us of the forward march of humanity toward greater equity and empathy.
The present work presents two Black figures in a marching band, yet it appears that they are in an interior rather than on a city street. It is as if the artist has frozen the pomp and circumstance so that we might take an extended look at its beauty. These balletic bodies move fluidly through space, embodying the very music that they make. The New York Times succinctly outlines Fordjour’s unique practice, “The process of painting is at once humble and intricate: He covers a canvas or wood board with cardboard tiles, foil and other materials, and wraps it in newspaper (always The Financial Times, for its warm, salmon hue). The process repeats several times, with Mr. Fordjour applying washes of paint, then tearing and carving the accumulating surface as he goes” (S. Mitter, “Derek Fordjour, From Anguish to Transcendence,” The New York Times, November 19, 2020). This inimitable style is epitomized by Rhythm & Blues, with its interlocking, collaged elements and engrossing details. Fordjour has an uncommon eye for the relationship between space and color. This sensitivity to pattern in Rhythm & Blues connects to the Bauhaus, especially the textiles of Anni Albers and Otti Berger.
This is another instance of Fordjour’s generosity and optimism. In an interview with the celebrated director and producer Ava DuVernay, Fordjour notes, “I have to believe that the work has power…I am hopeful that it can at least become a catalyst” (D. Fordjour, “Derek Fordjour in Conversation with Ava DuVernay,” 2021). In this way, music, which has always inspired Fordjour, can also be a catalyst. Toni Morrison writes in her novel Jazz of the sights and sounds of New York, “Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half. In the top half I see looking faces and it’s not easy to tell which are people, which are the work of stonemasons. Below is shadow where any blasé thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women” (T. Morrison, Jazz, New York, 2002, p. 7). Rhythm & Blues is filled with this same symphony of images, bodies, and feelings, built up from the triumphs and sorrows of life itself.
Fordjour, who is based in New York and is of Ghanaian heritage, is also an influential educator for a generation of students. After earning his MFA at Hunter College, City University of New York, he went on to earn an MA in Arts Education at Harvard University. He is currently a critic at the Yale School of Art, after serving as the Alex Katz Chair of Painting at Cooper Union, New York. Interestingly, a throughline can be drawn between Rhythm and Blues and Katz’s own career-long interest in music and dance, as with his Song, Laura Dean Dance Co. (1977).
Most recently, Fordjour was commissioned last year by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles to create a 5400-square-foot outdoor artwork entitled Sonic Boom, which also features marching band imagery. The Los Angeles Times celebrated the installation, “Standing in front of Derek Fordjour’s mural “Sonic Boom,” you can almost hear the drum major’s whistle chirping and the drum line keeping the beat. The marching band and prancing dancers forming Fordjour’s newly unveiled procession down Grand Avenue are just that lively” (L.A. Jackson, Derek Fordjour examines magic, race and revelry in two L.A. art installations, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2022). In addition to his MOCA commission, Fordjour has also mounted solo exhibitions at the Pond Society, Shanghai (2021), the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2020), the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project (2018), and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (2018). His work is included in numerous prestigious collections, including the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Rhythm & Blues is an exemplary canvas in Fordjour’s internationally renowned career. His work is so expansive as to be impossible to characterize within any one medium, which results in a body of work that pushes the boundaries of what art can do. Fordjour has therefore inherited the groundbreaking modernist advancements of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Yet he has put his own mark on this history with his dedication to social justice, education, and public art.
The present work presents two Black figures in a marching band, yet it appears that they are in an interior rather than on a city street. It is as if the artist has frozen the pomp and circumstance so that we might take an extended look at its beauty. These balletic bodies move fluidly through space, embodying the very music that they make. The New York Times succinctly outlines Fordjour’s unique practice, “The process of painting is at once humble and intricate: He covers a canvas or wood board with cardboard tiles, foil and other materials, and wraps it in newspaper (always The Financial Times, for its warm, salmon hue). The process repeats several times, with Mr. Fordjour applying washes of paint, then tearing and carving the accumulating surface as he goes” (S. Mitter, “Derek Fordjour, From Anguish to Transcendence,” The New York Times, November 19, 2020). This inimitable style is epitomized by Rhythm & Blues, with its interlocking, collaged elements and engrossing details. Fordjour has an uncommon eye for the relationship between space and color. This sensitivity to pattern in Rhythm & Blues connects to the Bauhaus, especially the textiles of Anni Albers and Otti Berger.
This is another instance of Fordjour’s generosity and optimism. In an interview with the celebrated director and producer Ava DuVernay, Fordjour notes, “I have to believe that the work has power…I am hopeful that it can at least become a catalyst” (D. Fordjour, “Derek Fordjour in Conversation with Ava DuVernay,” 2021). In this way, music, which has always inspired Fordjour, can also be a catalyst. Toni Morrison writes in her novel Jazz of the sights and sounds of New York, “Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half. In the top half I see looking faces and it’s not easy to tell which are people, which are the work of stonemasons. Below is shadow where any blasé thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women” (T. Morrison, Jazz, New York, 2002, p. 7). Rhythm & Blues is filled with this same symphony of images, bodies, and feelings, built up from the triumphs and sorrows of life itself.
Fordjour, who is based in New York and is of Ghanaian heritage, is also an influential educator for a generation of students. After earning his MFA at Hunter College, City University of New York, he went on to earn an MA in Arts Education at Harvard University. He is currently a critic at the Yale School of Art, after serving as the Alex Katz Chair of Painting at Cooper Union, New York. Interestingly, a throughline can be drawn between Rhythm and Blues and Katz’s own career-long interest in music and dance, as with his Song, Laura Dean Dance Co. (1977).
Most recently, Fordjour was commissioned last year by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles to create a 5400-square-foot outdoor artwork entitled Sonic Boom, which also features marching band imagery. The Los Angeles Times celebrated the installation, “Standing in front of Derek Fordjour’s mural “Sonic Boom,” you can almost hear the drum major’s whistle chirping and the drum line keeping the beat. The marching band and prancing dancers forming Fordjour’s newly unveiled procession down Grand Avenue are just that lively” (L.A. Jackson, Derek Fordjour examines magic, race and revelry in two L.A. art installations, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2022). In addition to his MOCA commission, Fordjour has also mounted solo exhibitions at the Pond Society, Shanghai (2021), the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2020), the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project (2018), and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (2018). His work is included in numerous prestigious collections, including the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Rhythm & Blues is an exemplary canvas in Fordjour’s internationally renowned career. His work is so expansive as to be impossible to characterize within any one medium, which results in a body of work that pushes the boundaries of what art can do. Fordjour has therefore inherited the groundbreaking modernist advancements of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Yet he has put his own mark on this history with his dedication to social justice, education, and public art.