Mark Bradford

Donated by the artist

This work is in very good condition overall. The collaged quality of the work results in an uneven surfcae, in some instances even resulting in the appearance of "losses" and lifting of paint. However, all of these characeristics are inherent to the work and to the artist's working method. The surface presents light evidence of dust accretions. There are no signs of inpainting or restoration under Ultraviolet light inspection. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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“Bad ass has had so many different relationships and meanings, apparently around here it’s a kind of a young word for “good” now, it’s like… it means something “good”… So I just thought, what does it mean to make a big painting bad ass? I mean... do I want to be a bad ass? My relationship to bad ass seems very old, it feels like something from easy rider, it feels… antique. When you take the work and reanimate it, it begins to abstract for me.” 
Mark Bradford, Interview for MOCA, directed by Felipe Lima, October 1, 2012 

Mark Bradford’s abstractions unite high art and popular culture as an unorthodox tableau of unequivocal beauty. Working in both paint and collage, Bradford incorporates elements from his daily life into his canvases: remnants of found posters and billboards, graffitied stencils and logos, and hairdresser’s permanent endpapers he has collected from his other profession as a stylist. Bradford offers abstraction with an urban flair that’s explosively contemporary. With his grid-like composition, Bradford fuses a complex abstraction of form and intricate layering culminating in a convoluted architecture of overlapping planes. Using collage and décollage, Bradford preserves the physical characteristics of his source material, exposing the tension between precise painterly gestures and the three-dimensionality of the found objects. He tears, paints, bleaches, sands and embellishes his materials to create abstract works that reimagine the city and reconfigure the urban landscape. Many canvases resemble roadmaps or aerial views—topographies of the city’s physical landscape as well as its social, economic, and cultural character.

His trademark mixed media paintings, highly textured using bold gesture and mark-making techniques, tread a line between map-like patterning and text-based abstraction. The graphic and painterly elements wrestle each other for dominance. In Is that what he told you, the repeating rows of the words “BAD ASS” combat with the thick red, black and white materiality of the paint. The left-hand side of the canvas appears deeply layered in black and white while the right half contains a palette dominated by red. The surface swirls in a visual pollution dense with the authority of its own colors, texture, and shape inherent in their materials. The present work is a fantastic example of Bradford’s exploration of abstraction through language all while examining the cultural weight and implications of language. Is that what he told you confronts the viewer with its scale while the word “BAD ASS” appears and disappears between the layers of collage and paint. This work is the first major text-based work of the artist to come up for auction. His emphasis on process, execution, and labor – drawn from collaging elements of urban life – simultaneously invokes the formal qualities of classical abstraction while complicating the preciousness of high art. This harkens the work of some of his contemporaries who emphasize process and text, Wade Guyton and Glenn Ligon respectively.