Artist Mark Bradford discusses his eponymous retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art
The MacArthur “genius” grantee’s eponymous retrospective opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art May 28.
Mark Bradford
In addition to your opening-night talk at the MCA May 26, you’re speaking at Trinity United Church of Christ (400 W 95th St, 773-962-5656) Sunday 22. Why speak at a church?
Oftentimes, in the art world, you see the same constituency over and over again. A large population of black folks go to church. So I thought, Well, I’ll go to a church and give a visiting artist’s talk. It’s really just recontextualizing what I do.
Why did you incorporate supplies from your mother’s hair salon into your early works?
I was interested in abstract painting, but I wasn’t after the same ideas [as the New York School]. I was interested in people, cultures, relationships. So, using a material that simply had a use value, I felt that the social, political complexities could not be totally erased.
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