Mark Bradford - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Tuesday, October 13, 2015 | Phillips

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm

  • Provenance

    Private Collection

  • Exhibited

    London, White Cube, Mark Bradford Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank 16 October 2013 - 12 January 2014
    New York, Brooklyn Museum, 27 July 2014-8 March 2015 (on loan)

  • Literature

    Mark Bradford: Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank (exh. cat), White Cube, London, 2013, p.49 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Mark Bradford’s vast tactile works characterised by their décollaged surfaces, evoke a sense of transience and instability. In compositions such as Constitution IV however, these ideas transcend material objects and infiltrate less physical subjects consequently, indicating the fragility of seemingly solid notions, morals or in this case, laws.

    Constitution IV immerses the viewer completely. Like a hubbub of voices speaking over each other, words and meanings are disjointed, fragmented and obscured in the layered and shredded nature of Bradford’s composition. Using printed text through his collage and décollage technique the canvas becomes a palimpsest-like surface offering insights into further meanings and depths, whilst remaining ambiguous and indecipherable. Thus, the viewer is drawn into Bradford’s works in order to try and draw meaning from the myriad of letters flickering in and out of focus. The effect is only heightened by the artist’s gestural use of paper. In fact, despite his works’ painterly appearance they are often comprised purely of paper thus, are predominantly an amalgamation of the inked printed sources Bradford uses and his physical manipulation of their surfaces. In turn, the texture is constantly reworked, with the artist sanding back and overlaying the surface of the work until he feels the work is complete. This approach allows the artist to capitalise on the spontaneous and random nature of these erasures- creating a new possibilities and directions with which to take the work.

    Through Bradford’s vibrant and enticing visual displays the artist bridges high and low art, frequently incorporating found materials from his urban environment such as billboard sheets, posters and written texts from media outputs. In this manner, his canvases reflect the New York City culture they arise from, whilst mirroring the physical layering of posters and advertisements on bridge walls or even in the subway stations. Hence, Bradford brings to light what he refers to as ‘social abstraction’ occurring all around us every day – traces of which are found on the streets of the cities we inhabit. However, Constitution IV draws further inspiration from another integral facet of American culture; Bradford cites entire sections of the US constitution over four canvases that form his Constitution series from 2013. By physically shredding and scraping strips of this important text, Bradford in one way arguably reduces its historical and political significance. On the other hand, the vibrant flickering surface evokes the Constitution’s status as a living document, constantly open to modification. The striations of text on display in this work therefore, seem to portray the evolution of the Constitution, exposing all of its additions and changes like the layers of a sedimentary rock uncovered through a cross-section of the earth.

Ο◆21

Mark Bradford

Constitution IV

2013
mixed media on canvas
335.3 x 304.8 cm (132 x 120 in.)
Signed 'Mark Bradford' on the reverse.

Estimate
£2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡

Sold for £3,778,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm