Mark Bradford
Mark Bradford
Mark Bradfordis an American artist living and working in Los Angeles...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
CountryUnited States of America
depends hop insecure life piece
I'm kind of an insecure artist. I hop from piece to piece. I always think my life depends on every painting. Every painting is my first painting.
belong choose expected figured people room run society suddenly visit
I never expected to run into a room and suddenly I belonged. I figured people who live on the fringes of society, they're more free. They can choose to visit anywhere; they don't belong to anywhere. It's like being without a nation, in a way.
ensure happen
It's very time-consuming. We want to ensure it's done correctly. It's nothing that's going to happen overnight.
underlying
Everything I do has an underlying political question.
defensive everybody great jessica played sure
Bergh played a great defensive game, she's all over the place. Jessica makes sure everybody is in the right place.
became believe opened picked reason stand
When I was thirteen, I was in a supermarket with my mother, and for no reason at all, I picked up a science-fiction book at the checkout stand and started reading it. I couldn't believe I was doing that, actually reading a book. And, man, it opened up a whole new thing. Reading became the sparkplug of my imagination.
decide society telling work
At the end of the day, I'm an artist. I may make work and decide to do something political, but it will come out of an artist's position. It won't come out of society telling me I have to. If I do, it's because I choose, as an artist, to do it.
either trust
You either have to find a way to be really creative materially, or you better have a trust fund. And, last I checked, I didn't have a trust fund.
base narrative oftentimes paintings twist
The narrative oftentimes is that everything that comes out of the hood is 'real,' and so I thought, 'I'll base it on the absurd, the not real. I'll twist the idea of real on its head and see if I can get away with it. I'll make paintings that come not from a place but through an abstract gaze.'
dna longer several
Autopsies will take several days, and if DNA is required, it will even take longer than that.
ask details inspired looking mother small supported
I've always been inspired by small details that make me wander. My mother would ask me, 'What are you looking at so intensely?' I would answer, 'Everything and nothing.' She really supported my wanderings, called me Marco Polo.
act along hair hear history popular pull salon three voices work
That's how I make work. Along the way, I take notes, I read about history and popular culture. Sometimes I act out things in the studio. I go back to my mother's hair salon so I can hear three voices going all at once. I pull inspiration from everything.
advertising creates density sheer tense until
The sheer density of advertising creates a psychic mass, an overlay that can sometimes be very tense or aggressive. As a citizen, you have to participate in that every day. You have to walk by until it's changed.
believe looking three
The three occupants that we were looking for we believe we have, in fact, found.