Immersing in art when museums are closed

Mark Bradford
Juice, 2003
Mixed media on canvas
72 x 84 inches
Private Collection
© Mark Bradford. Photo: Charles White

Mark Bradford’s works, merging the lines between collage and painting, cling quietly to the walls of The Modern Museum right now. Put on view since March 8th, the artist’s long-awaited solo exhibition End Papers is currently undisturbed by visitors. Made of small sheets of translucent paper used by hairdressers, the works of Mark Bradford catapult the audience to the artist’s past where he worked in his mother’s beauty salon in South LA. These small sheets of paper, that taught him how to construct a painting, inspired Mark Bradford to later use merchant’s posters, broadsides, and other «social papers», layering abstraction with personal and social content. Now, approximately 35 major End Paper works are behind the closed doors, as the museum, along with many other institutions, is closed for now in support of the effort to spread the contain of the virus.

While the usual life is put on hold, you can enjoy a little immersing into Bradford’s art, courtesy of The Modern museum. Until the doors of the museum are open again, check out the Mark Bradford in conversation with the exhibition’s curator Michael Auping on the artist’s attraction to this particular material, and the importance the End Papers paintings played in the development of his art on the museum’s official YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L48qbaj1B8U. Follow the Modern Museum instagram for more online events like Being There: Revisiting Tuesday Evenings series of presentations and live chats.