A basic material he used for work became Mark Bradford’s signature artistic material
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Mark Bradford, currently featured in an exhibit at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, uses end papers from his mother’s beauty salon as the element to create mixed media collages of geometric design.
The exhibit, End Papers, focuses on a theme the gay artist has returned to repeatedly over the last 20 years of his career while expanding his mixed media to social papers — using posters and other pieces in his work as social commentary. But this exhibit sticks to his use of the element that originally inspired his work — the end paper that protects hair from burning while using curlers to create permanent waves.
And the collages he builds use those end papers to create a geometric design that echoes the work of Piet Mondrian, known for his geometrics. But Mondrian’s geometric paintings began with the more complex “Broadway Boogie Woogie,” and as his work developed, the designs became simpler. Bradford moved in the opposite direction; as he has added color and more texture to his work, it becomes more complex.
While his earlier works employ less color, Bradford later began experimenting with more and more color. Yet the basic material filling each canvass continue to be those end papers from his mother’s salon.
The names of Bradford’s canvasses are an interesting piece of each work. “Colors in 43G Spring Honey” refers to hair dyes found in the salon. Or snippets of conversations heard in the salon such as “Dreadlocks cain’t tell me shit,” or “It took me years to learn the right attitude” become painting titles.
Exhibit curator Michael Auping said, “The End Paper works are not only beautiful, they were prophetic in terms of layering abstraction with personal and social content.”
He explained that much of post-World War II modern art is about using common materials. In Bradford’s case, the artist used a material that he had learned to use while working in his mother’s salon. “The End Papers,” Auping said, “are a key element of Bradford’s identity.”
The ill-timed exhibit was scheduled to run March 8-Aug. 9. The museum, of course, was closed most of that period. So the exhibit of about 35 canvasses was extended through Jan. 10, no small feat considering the large group of canvasses was assembled from major museums such as the Hirshhorn, the Guggenheim and the L.A. County Museum of Art, as well as from an assortment of private collections, including “The hoody is moody,” a 2003 work belonging to Anderson Cooper.
Bradford’s work is becoming more widely known. In 2019, he had an exhibit in Shanghai. And in 2018, he was commissioned to create a work for the new U.S. embassy in London entitled “We the People,” 32 panels, each measuring 10 square feet, featuring selected text from the U.S. Constitution.
The Modern, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth, has returned to regular hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m. $16, half price Sundays and free Fridays. Parking is free. Cafe Modern remains closed.