“I don’t go into painting with any kind of plan. The ones I am happiest with I have no idea how I arrived at. The best ones are always a real surprise.” - Joe Bradley

Joe Bradley’s artistic style ranges dramatically from his rectangular, monochromatic paintings to his Schmagoo cave paintings. Bradley’s work consistently captivates and highlights the importance of the act of painting as the first form of human creative expression. “I think that painting, in particular, with its long history, moves in that fashion. It's not a forward, linear, sort of movement. You can be in conversation with those men and women in the caves—it's like yesterday, you know? I think that time moves slower in painting.” (Joe Bradley in conversation with Laura Hoptman, Interview Magazine, March 29, 2013)

Bradley’s series of works entitled Human Form premiered at Canada Gallery in 2011 and embodies the invigorating revival of painting as a slower, more fundamental, art form-- one that can be taken back to the basics while still exploring contemporary issues. The artist has said, “You have the 20th century wrapping up and everything is moving at this breakneck speed? And then, painting is still walking. It's just a very human activity that takes time. “(Joe Bradley in conversation with Laura Hoptman, Interview Magazine, March 29, 2013)

The present lot depicts a silhouetted figure painted in black silkscreen ink against a stark white background. The figures in the series are illustrated in "kind of ridiculous Egyptian-style poses,” Bradley himself explained in an interview with Art in America. The elemental gravity of the piece emerges from the tension between the male form and the space he inhabits; the schematic human form is seemingly timeless. Indeed, Bradley utilizes the human form to explore the history of the medium of painting itself: “I think that painting relates very neatly to inner travel and the exploration of inner worlds. With painting, I always get the impression that you're sort of entering into a shared space. There's everyone who's painted in the past, and everyone who is painting in the present. “(Joe Bradley in conversation with Laura Hoptman, Interview Magazine, March 29, 2013)