WA MATRIX 172 Brochure - Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

53 downloads 132 Views 7MB Size Report
Jun 4, 2015 - 1997 MFA, California Institute of the Arts,. Valencia, CA. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS. 2015 Wadsworth Athen
WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 1

MARK BRADFORD

MATRIX 172

PALM

“The most impor the art supply st

—MARK BRADFOR

A Home Depot sh was scheduled to for the site-spec • • • •

Acrylic m Matte bla Tubes of Lengths o

Bradford also sen

The exhibition co Wadsworth Athen drawings on view Contemporary Ar Mark Bradford Pr the Chicago com many previous w peeling away lay of colors was rev wall drawing add

Once again inspir MATRIX artist, an a site-specific wa technique. Along assistants rolled parallel lines, and then proceeded t process to creat

JUNE 4 – SEPTEMB ER 6, 2015 WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MUSEUM OF ART

COVER: MARK BRADFORD, ST WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MA 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 2

ORD

72

PALM TREES AND PAVEMENT “The most important imperative to be questioned is the one that tells you to go to the art supply store to be a painter.” 1 —MARK BRADFORD

A Home Depot shopping list landed in my inbox about two months before this exhibition was scheduled to open. It contained the materials artist Mark Bradford would require for the site-specific wall drawing he planned for his MATRIX project: • • • •

Acrylic matte varnish Matte black paint Tubes of clear caulk Lengths of multicolored rope

views his installa metaphor for for (2015 marks the exhibitions for w the inaugural MA

Bradford’s wall d specifically for h developed by the Los Angeles stud Bradford’s wall d created from col Titled Pile of Bloc Bradford was cur

Bradford also sent boxes of colored paper from his studio. The exhibition concept had developed very quickly. During Bradford’s site visit to the Wadsworth Atheneum in June of 2014, he was attracted to the four Sol LeWitt wall drawings on view at the Museum. He recalled a project he had done at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2011, in which he uncovered a LeWitt wall drawing. The Mark Bradford Project, a year-long audience participation residency that engaged the Chicago community, included Pinocchio Is On Fire, a work created on the site of many previous wall drawings, including one by LeWitt that had been painted over. By peeling away layers of subsequent white paint, in the form of letters, LeWitt’s palette of colors was revealed and became integral to Bradford’s newly created, text-based wall drawing addressing the subject of identity. Once again inspired by Sol LeWitt―Hartford native, Conceptual artist, three-time MATRIX artist, and founder of the “wall drawing” art form―Bradford proposed a site-specific wall drawing of his own, but employing his signature materials and technique. Along the sixty-foot wall in MATRIX’s Bunce Gallery, Bradford and two assistants rolled out a field of black paint, adhered long lengths of rope in horizontal parallel lines, and applied dense layers of vibrantly colored paper, which the artist then proceeded to sand, peel, strip, and cut away from the wall in a subtractive process to create a vivid and textured composition. Akin to an excavation, Bradford

2015

M OF ART

INSTALLATION PROCESS, PIN IN THE EXHIBITION MARK BRA MCA CHICAGO, 28 MAY ‒ 18 PHOTO: NATHAN KEAY © MCA COVER: MARK BRADFORD, STUDIO TEST PAINTING FOR WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MATRIX EXHIBITION (DETAIL), 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 3

MENT

lls you to go to

re this exhibition d would require

views his installation―a physical process “more about labor than theater” 2―as a metaphor for forty years (or layers) of MATRIX history at the Wadsworth Atheneum. (2015 marks the fortieth anniversary of the MATRIX series of Contemporary art exhibitions for which Bradford has designed a limited-edition poster. LeWitt designed the inaugural MATRIX poster in 1975.) Bradford’s wall drawing―Pull Painting 1―accompanies two paintings created specifically for his MATRIX exhibition. These “pull paintings” feature a new technique developed by the artist through the process of testing MATRIX wall drawings in his Los Angeles studio.3 In a nod to the rigid structure of early Sol LeWitt wall drawings, 4 Bradford’s wall drawing and paintings share similar horizontal, parallel lines but created from colored ropes, which have been sanded or stripped from the surfaces. Titled Pile of Blocks (2015) and Wet Grass (2015), the former comes from the book Bradford was currently reading, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (1998),5

and the latter, W suggest Bradford urban, and how t nature but also u to a developed ci “seem to point to mixed messages color palettes, th “bifurcation”9 tha two canvases rev images―collage This union of abs

Mark Bradford gr upended his neig King verdict) res beyond. In the af

site visit to the LeWitt wall the Museum of ll drawing. The at engaged on the site of ainted over. By LeWitt’s palette d, text-based

, three-time proposed terials and d and two e in horizontal ch the artist btractive ion, Bradford

SOL LEWITT, WALL DRAWING AND TWIRLS,” 2004. INK AND THE ELLA GALLUP SUMER AND SUMNER COLLECTION FUND, PHOTO: ALLEN PHILLIPS

INSTALLATION PROCESS, PINOCCHIO IS ON FIRE, IN THE EXHIBITION MARK BRADFORD AT THE MCA CHICAGO, 28 MAY ‒ 18 SEPTEMBER 2011. PHOTO: NATHAN KEAY © MCA CHICAGO

ater”2―as a th Atheneum. orary art eWitt designed

s created new technique awings in his wall drawings,4 lines but the surfaces. om the book 1898 (1998),5

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 4

MARK BRADFORD, STUDIO TE PAINTING FOR WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MATRIX EXHIBITIO 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

and the latter, Wet Grass, is a phrase Bradford has always liked. 6 Together, the titles suggest Bradford’s stated interest in “the junctions demarcating the natural and the urban, and how these converge and overlap. I like the idea of fissure, not just from nature but also urban channels.”7 (Gotham chronicles New York from a natural Eden to a developed city.) A voracious reader, Bradford often quotes texts for titles that “seem to point to some strange, psychological space….[are] soft and biting,…[or give] mixed messages.”8 Although similar compositions of the same size, just with different color palettes, the contrasting titles of Pile of Blocks and Wet Grass illustrate the “bifurcation”9 that carries through his body of work. 10 Here, close inspection of the two canvases reveals that the surface abstraction gives way to underlying texts and images―collaged sheets of discarded billboard paper of local street advertisements. This union of abstract form and social engagement exemplifies Bradford’s art. Mark Bradford grew up in South Central Los Angeles―where in 1965 the Watts riots upended his neighborhood and in 1992 the Los Angeles riots (ignited by the Rodney King verdict) resulted in mass arson, looting, assault, and murder in the same area and beyond. In the aftermath of the King riots, cyclone fencing was installed around the

SOL LEWITT, WALL DRAWING #1131 “WHIRLS AND TWIRLS,” 2004. INK AND PAINT ON WALLS. THE ELLA GALLUP SUMER AND MARY CATLIN SUMNER COLLECTION FUND, 2004.12.1. PHOTO: ALLEN PHILLIPS

her, the titles atural and the ot just from natural Eden or titles that biting,…[or give] t with different ustrate the ection of the ying texts and advertisements. rd’s art.

he Watts riots y the Rodney e same area and ed around the

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 5

MARK BRADFORD, STUDIO TEST PAINTING FOR WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MATRIX EXHIBITION, 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 6

MARK BRADFORD, STUDIO TEST PAINTING FOR WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MATRIX EXHIBITION (DETAIL), 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 7

MARK BRADFORD, PILE OF BLOCKS, 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

MARK BRADFORD, WET GRAS 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

destruction and eventually merchant posters began to appear as the initial signs of an economic renewal.11 Such everyday realities of the local community and urban landscape inform his racially and politically charged work. Known for tactile, signage-based and map-like collage paintings, Bradford’s trademark monumental, mixed-media abstractions layer string and advertising posters stripped from the city streets infamous for gang violence. The artist maintains his studio here in the same Leimert Park neighborhood where he lived until the age of eleven.

Bradford explains streets of South

In some of Bradford’s best-known work, posters from local merchants―their texts traced and raised with string―are layered with paper and largely painted over. When sanded through by the artist, glimpses of the sign texts betray the area’s problematic social and economic issues. Tacked to telephone poles and plywood construction-site fences, advertisements for bail bonds businesses, money-cashing stores, and paternity- and disease-testing clinics target and prey upon the local people in need of these services. These social and political interests intrinsic to Bradford’s “post-black”12 work are symbolically represented, veiled in abstraction.

“As politically int wanted to be an face. The interne understand black language, the soc that for me, I cou of my work come through the trace lived in this place lived, looking dow

Bradford calls him repurposing merc

nitial signs ity and n for tactile, onumental, d from the city e in the same

―their texts nted over. he area’s d plywood oney-cashing the local people to Bradford’s .

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 8

MARK BRADFORD, WET GRASS, 2015. PHOTO: JOSHUA WHITE

Bradford explains his position as an African American artist from the sun-blistered streets of South Central breaking into the art world in the 1990s: “As politically intense as the ’50s were, I felt that when I came on the scene and wanted to be an artist, it was just as intense and the imagery was right in your face. The internet had made everyone so accessible; everyone could go online and understand black culture through hip-hop. This included the imagery, the clothes, the language, the social norms and communication. It became so product-laden, so static, that for me, I couldn’t breathe. And so I realized I would have to abstract it. I think all of my work comes out of the body and the disappearance, traces and hints of the body, through the traces of the materials that were there. The memory of the body―people lived in this place, the erosions of cities and spaces, topographies of where people lived, looking down on communities.”13 Bradford calls himself a “paper-chaser,” and the term is apt, for his practice of repurposing merchant signs, tattered posters, and battered billboards is at the very

MARK BRADFORD, BREAD AND 2007. MIXED MEDIA AND COL CANVAS; 134 ½ X 253 ½ IN.

MARK BRADFORD, UNTITLED, MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER; 12 ½

core of his comm abstraction, call subtly delivered, timeless work of version of a wall from a local hard

PATRICIA HICKSO

Emily Hall Tremaine C

un-blistered

scene and t in your o online and he clothes, the aden, so static, ct it. I think all ints of the body, e body―people where people

actice of is at the very

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 9

MA

MARK BRADFORD, BREAD AND CIRCUSES, 2007. MIXED MEDIA AND COLLAGE ON CANVAS; 134 ½ X 253 ½ IN.

EDUCATION 1995

BFA, Californ Valencia, CA

SELECTED SOLO 2015

2014

2012 2011

MARK BRADFORD, UNTITLED, 2006. MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER; 12 ½ X 22 ¼ IN.

MARK BRADFORD, UNTITLED, 2007. MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER; 19 X 22 IN.

core of his commentary, locally sourced but universally relevant. Call it social abstraction, call it political critique, these beautiful and issue-laden paintings are subtly delivered, in a form both original and of their time. Yet, in response to the timeless work of Sol LeWitt, Mark Bradford hits the target in a colorful, high-relief version of a wall drawing entirely his own, rendered in everyday materials purchased from a local hardware store. PATRICIA HICKSON Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art

Wadsworth A Mark Bradfor Hammer Mus Los Angeles, Gemeentemu Mark Bradfor Netherlands The Rockbun Shanghai, Ch The Rose Art Mark Bradfor Waltham, MA The Tom Brad Los Angeles Los Angeles San Francisc Mark Bradfor MCA Chicago Dallas Museu Dallas, TX

t social aintings are nse to the , high-relief als purchased

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 10

MARK BRADFORD

Born in Los Angeles, Lives and works in Lo

EDUCATION

SELECTED GROU

1995

BFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

1997

MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

2015

2010

Studio Museum Harlem, Alphabet, New York, NY Wexner Center for the Arts, Mark Bradford, Columbus, OH Institute of Contemporary Art, Mark Bradford, Boston, MA Aspen Art Museum, Merchant Posters, Aspen, CO San Antonio, ArtPace, San Antonio, TX Cincinnati Art Museum, Maps and Manifests: New Work by Mark Bradford, Cincinnati, OH Whitney Museum of American Art, Neither New nor Correct: New Work by Mark Bradford, New York, NY LAXART, Niagara, Los Angeles, CA Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, Very Powerful Lords, New York, NY The Luggage Store, Color Theory—Negroes Have Been Burning since the Plantation, San Francisco, CA Walter McLean Gallery, Floss, San Francisco, CA

2013

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015

2014

2012 2011

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Mark Bradford / MATRIX 172, Hartford, CT Hammer Museum, Scorched Earth, Los Angeles, CA Gemeentemuseum den Haag, Mark Bradford: Sea Monsters, The Hague, Netherlands The Rockbund Art Museum, Tears of a Tree, Shanghai, China The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Mark Bradford: Sea Monsters, Waltham, MA The Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles Airport, Bell Tower, Los Angeles, CA (Special Commission) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mark Bradford, San Francisco, CA MCA Chicago, Mark Bradford, Chicago, IL Dallas Museum of Art, Mark Bradford, Dallas, TX

2008

2007

2006 2003 2000

1998

2012

2011 2010

Whitney Mus Is Hard to Se Sharjah Art F The past, the Sharjah, UAE Wexner Cent Smoke, Colum Whitney Mus Smoke, New 9th Gwangju Gwangju, Sou Museum of C Factory, Los Museum of C Smoke, Los A 12th Interna Untitled, Ista 6th Internati Media City S Wexner Cent Columbus, OH

AWARDS 2014 2013 2009

US Departme Washington, National Aca MacArthur Fe Wexner Cent Columbus, OH

WORKS IN THE E

All works courtesy th

Pull Painting 1, 2015 Paint, paper, rope, se Dimensions variable Pile of Blocks, 2015 Mixed media on canv 72 x 84 in. Wet Grass, 2015 Mixed media on canv 72 x 84 in.

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 11

ORD

Born in Los Angeles, California, 1961 Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS e of the Arts,

2015

, Alphabet,

2013

Arts, Mark Bradford,

ary Art, MA rchant Posters,

San Antonio, TX Maps and y Mark Bradford,

merican Art, ct: New Work by rk, NY ngeles, CA merican Art at Altria, ew York, NY or Theory—Negroes ce the Plantation, Floss,

2012

2011 2010

Whitney Museum of American Art, America Is Hard to See, New York, NY Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible, Sharjah, UAE Wexner Center for the Arts, Blues for Smoke, Columbus, OH Whitney Museum of American Art, Blues for Smoke, New York, NY 9th Gwangju Biennale, ROUNDTABLE, Gwangju, South Korea Museum of Contemporary Art, The Painting Factory, Los Angeles, CA Museum of Contemporary Art, Blues for Smoke, Los Angeles, CA 12th International Istanbul Biennial, Untitled, Istanbul, Turkey 6th International Biennale of Seoul, Media City Seoul, Seoul, South Korea Wexner Center for the Arts, Hand Targets, Columbus, OH

ARTIST TALKS 2008

2006

2004

2001

The New Museum, Collage: The Unmonumental Picture, New York, NY 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Life on Mars, Pittsburgh, PA New Orleans, Prospect 1., New Orleans, LA Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 27th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, New York, NY Orange County Museum of Art, 2004 California Biennial, Newport Beach, CA REDCAT/Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Bounce: Mark Bradford and Glenn Kaino, Los Angeles, CA The Studio Museum in Harlem, Freestyle, New York, NY

MATRIX Gallery Talks Mark Bradford Thursday, June 4 6 pm and 7 pm

Mark Bradford will discu Eleanor H. Bunce Gallery

AWARDS 2014 2013 2009

US Department of State's Medal of Arts, Washington, DC National Academician, New York, NY MacArthur Fellowship Award, Chicago, IL Wexner Center Residency Award, Columbus, OH

2006

2003 2002

Bucksbaum Award, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA Fellowship Award Louis Comfort Tiffany Award Nancy Graves Foundation Joan Mitchell Foundation

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION All works courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Pull Painting 1, 2015 Paint, paper, rope, sealant, and varnish on wall Dimensions variable Pile of Blocks, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 72 x 84 in. Wet Grass, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 72 x 84 in.

1

Mark Bradford in conversati Haven and London, and Colu Mark Bradford, telephone co 3 Ibid. 4 Email correspondence to the 5 Edward G. Burrows and Mike 6 Email correspondence to the 7 Mark Bradford in Susan May London: White Cube, 2013; p 8 Mark Bradford in Susan May 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Email correspondence to the 12 Curator Thelma Golden coine 2001. The term raised some best defines “post-black” ar See Holland Cotter, “Trackin 13 Mark Bradford in Susan May 2

WA MATRIX 172 Brochure-4_WA MATRIX 172 Brochure 6/3/15 3:48 PM Page 12

ARTIST TALKS

age: The New York, NY ional, Carnegie Mars,

MATRIX Gallery Talks Mark Bradford Thursday, June 4 6 pm and 7 pm

1., New Orleans, LA o Paulo, 27th Bienal o, Brazil merican Art, Whitney Night, New York, NY m of Art, 2004 wport Beach, CA Disney/CalArts Bradford and es, CA Harlem, Freestyle,

Mark Bradford will discuss his MATRIX project in the Eleanor H. Bunce Gallery.

600 Main Street Hartford, Connecticut 06103 (860) 278-2670 www.thewadsworth.org

ALL MARK BRADFORD IMAGES ARE COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH. © MARK BRADFORD

The MATRIX program is generously supported in part by Jeffrey G. Marsted and Marcia Reid Marsted, as well as the current and founding members of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s Contemporary Coalition. Additional support was provided by Hauser & Wirth. Support for the Wadsworth Atheneum is provided in part by the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and the Department of Economic and Community Development, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

tney Museum of , NY

Award on on

1

Mark Bradford in conversation with Christopher Bedford, 25 June 2009, quoted in Christopher Bedford, “Against Abstraction,” Mark Bradford. New Haven and London, and Columbus, Ohio: Yale University Press and Wexner Center for the Arts, 2010; p. 19. Mark Bradford, telephone conversation with the author, 31 March 2015. 3 Ibid. 4 Email correspondence to the author from Tate Dougherty of Hauser & Wirth, forwarding information from the artist, 14 May 2015. 5 Edward G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998. 6 Email correspondence to the author from Tate Dougherty of Hauser & Wirth, forwarding information from the artist, 9 May 2015. 7 Mark Bradford in Susan May, “’Call and Response’ A Conversation with Mark Bradford” in Mark Bradford: Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank. London: White Cube, 2013; p. 75. 8 Mark Bradford in Susan May, p. 79. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Email correspondence to the author from Tate Dougherty of Hauser & Wirth, forwarding information from the artist, 19 May 2015. 12 Curator Thelma Golden coined the term “post-black” to describe Mark Bradford’s work in the exhibition Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001. The term raised some controversy in the African American art community regarding Golden’s intended meaning. Art critic Holland Cotter perhaps best defines “post-black” art as: “art that can choose to refer to racial identity—or to class, or gender, or aestheticism, or daily life—or choose not to.” See Holland Cotter, “Tracking Racial Identity, But Not Defined By It,” The New York Times, 23 December 2010. 13 Mark Bradford in Susan May, p. 84. 2