Post War and Contemporary Art

Provenance:

Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Private Collection

Sold: Sotheby's New York, November 21, 2024, Lot 469

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Lot essay:

Mark Bradford’s mixed media works on paper hold a distinctive place in American art history for the way in which they expand the language of abstraction while grounding it in the social realities of urban life in the United States. Emerging from the lineage of Abstract Expressionism and post-minimalist collage, Bradford transforms humble, everyday materials—end papers, posters, and signage collected from his Los Angeles neighborhood—into richly layered compositions that hold both formal and socio-political weight.

Consequently, Bradford bridges the gap between the material history of collage and the social histories embedded in his chosen media. His works recall the torn posters of Jacques Villeglé and the gestural, layered surfaces of Robert Rauschenberg, yet he redefines and rethinks those precedents through a distinctly African-American lens. Each fragment he employs brings traces of commerce, community, and identity into the pictorial field, transforming abstraction into a vehicle for social mapping.

Bradford’s mixed media practice resultantly repositions abstraction as a form of cultural archaeology: one that excavates stories of marginalization, resilience, and transformation from the visual debris of everyday life. His work conveys to the viewer, as seen through the three part suite shown here, that the modernist project of formal innovation can coexist with deep social engagement, renewing the relevance of collage and abstraction.

I: 37 x 54 inches.
Framed: 41 1/4 x 58 1/4 inches.

II: 38 x 52 inches.
Framed: 41 1/2 x 56 inches.

III: 36 1/2 by 52 1/2 inches.
Framed: 41 1/4 x 57 inches.

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