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Lot Essay
Originating on the streets as much as the studio, Blind Necks Voting is a dynamic and visually arresting example of Mark Bradford’s signature style of abstract painting, often referred to as ‘social abstraction.’ Made from layers comprising predominantly of paper and other found materials, Bradford arrives at a unique, kinetic form of abstraction that hums with movement and color, defying the labor-intensive method of its making with its palpable sense of lightness and vitality. Large patches of paper in cerulean, green, yellow and organic hues interplay over smaller strips of white and fluorescent pink rectangles – extracts from a billboard poster whose text can be glimpsed at the bottom of the canvas. Arranged in a loose, imperfect grid-like pattern, the underlayers of Blind Necks Voting are evocative of a map of Los Angeles where the artist was born and continues to live today.
Made the year after Bradford represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2017, the interplay of personal narrative and large-scale abstraction evident in Blind Necks Voting is highly characteristic of the way in which Bradford layers deeper personal, social and political meanings within the physical matter of his art. He is deliberately democratic in his choice of materials, employing everyday items from hardware stores, saying, “If Home Depot doesn’t have it, Mark Bradford doesn’t need it” (quoted in “Mark Bradford by Barry Jenkins” Interview, June 12, 2017.) He also uses found printed matter that is often intensely local: newspapers, magazines, maps, billboards, movie posters and advertising signage discovered on the streets of his L.A. neighborhood.
Working on canvas, he constructs a picture by meticulously building the surface up in layers of materials before tearing and cutting his way back through it to excavate the final form of the composition. “I am drawn to ways of working that are very tactile with a certain physicality,” he has said. “I tend to obliterate the canvas with paper so it becomes opaque, almost like a wall, and then I begin to build. Between the first layer and the final surface layer of paper is where all the action happens” (quoted in C. Picard, "Mark Bradford on class and identity in South Central LA," The Art Newspaper, May 7, 2010).
Working with materials sourced from an urban vernacular - recognizable things that carry their own histories - has always been an important part of Bradford’s method. He says, “I’ve always looked for details that point to something obvious in an urban landscape or a racial conversation, those micro details that point to a macro.” (quoted in F. Blythe, “Hound of Hades”, Hero Magazine, September 15, 2021).
Born in 1961, Bradford worked in his mother’s beauty salon from a young age. That formative experience led him to incorporate end papers – the small, square translucent papers used by hairdressers – into his early work. He found them a familiar comfort as he embarked upon his career as an artist, reminding him of the time he spent working in the salon, which was a source of income and community for him well into early adulthood. At the same time, he was fascinated by Abstract Expressionism and the 1950s New York scene. The end papers offered a way of uniting these two worlds. He said, “I became interested in unpacking these two concepts. The way I layer end papers like a grid across the surface of my paintings lends itself to a conversation about abstraction, but the end papers also serve a purpose and come directly from the world in which I was living. I don’t see my abstract paintings and incorporation of end papers as two exclusive impulses. In my practice, they have always gone together” (quoted in F. Aton, “Mark Bradford on Painting with paper”, Art in America, September 11, 2020).
Over the years, Bradford’s work has expanded into active social engagement, endeavoring to bring contemporary art and ideas into local communities. In 2015 he opened Art + Practice, an exhibition space and youth center that runs free public programs in South Los Angeles; at the 2017 Venice Biennale, he launched a six-year partnership with a local cooperative to give opportunities and training to prisoners. These activities are a continuation of his bold re-imagining of the possibilities of painting, and his commitment to enabling art to embrace the most pressing issues of the day. “To use the whole social fabric of our society as a point of departure for abstraction reanimates it, dusts it off. It becomes really interesting to me, and supercharged. I just find that chilling and amazing” (M. Bradford, ‘Clyfford Still’s Paintings’, in The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, New York, 2017, p. 46).
Made the year after Bradford represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2017, the interplay of personal narrative and large-scale abstraction evident in Blind Necks Voting is highly characteristic of the way in which Bradford layers deeper personal, social and political meanings within the physical matter of his art. He is deliberately democratic in his choice of materials, employing everyday items from hardware stores, saying, “If Home Depot doesn’t have it, Mark Bradford doesn’t need it” (quoted in “Mark Bradford by Barry Jenkins” Interview, June 12, 2017.) He also uses found printed matter that is often intensely local: newspapers, magazines, maps, billboards, movie posters and advertising signage discovered on the streets of his L.A. neighborhood.
Working on canvas, he constructs a picture by meticulously building the surface up in layers of materials before tearing and cutting his way back through it to excavate the final form of the composition. “I am drawn to ways of working that are very tactile with a certain physicality,” he has said. “I tend to obliterate the canvas with paper so it becomes opaque, almost like a wall, and then I begin to build. Between the first layer and the final surface layer of paper is where all the action happens” (quoted in C. Picard, "Mark Bradford on class and identity in South Central LA," The Art Newspaper, May 7, 2010).
Working with materials sourced from an urban vernacular - recognizable things that carry their own histories - has always been an important part of Bradford’s method. He says, “I’ve always looked for details that point to something obvious in an urban landscape or a racial conversation, those micro details that point to a macro.” (quoted in F. Blythe, “Hound of Hades”, Hero Magazine, September 15, 2021).
Born in 1961, Bradford worked in his mother’s beauty salon from a young age. That formative experience led him to incorporate end papers – the small, square translucent papers used by hairdressers – into his early work. He found them a familiar comfort as he embarked upon his career as an artist, reminding him of the time he spent working in the salon, which was a source of income and community for him well into early adulthood. At the same time, he was fascinated by Abstract Expressionism and the 1950s New York scene. The end papers offered a way of uniting these two worlds. He said, “I became interested in unpacking these two concepts. The way I layer end papers like a grid across the surface of my paintings lends itself to a conversation about abstraction, but the end papers also serve a purpose and come directly from the world in which I was living. I don’t see my abstract paintings and incorporation of end papers as two exclusive impulses. In my practice, they have always gone together” (quoted in F. Aton, “Mark Bradford on Painting with paper”, Art in America, September 11, 2020).
Over the years, Bradford’s work has expanded into active social engagement, endeavoring to bring contemporary art and ideas into local communities. In 2015 he opened Art + Practice, an exhibition space and youth center that runs free public programs in South Los Angeles; at the 2017 Venice Biennale, he launched a six-year partnership with a local cooperative to give opportunities and training to prisoners. These activities are a continuation of his bold re-imagining of the possibilities of painting, and his commitment to enabling art to embrace the most pressing issues of the day. “To use the whole social fabric of our society as a point of departure for abstraction reanimates it, dusts it off. It becomes really interesting to me, and supercharged. I just find that chilling and amazing” (M. Bradford, ‘Clyfford Still’s Paintings’, in The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, New York, 2017, p. 46).