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Mark Bradford , b. November 20, 1961

Crossing the Threshold

2009
48 in. x 60 in. (121.92 cm x 152.4 cm)

Medium and Support: Mixed media collage on canvas

Credit Line: Museum purchase with support of the African American Art Acquisition Fund

Accession Number: 2009.80

Commentary

Mark Bradford scavenges materials all of which have in the artist’s words, a “built-in history,” from the streets near his studio in South Central Los Angeles to integrate into mixed-media works on canvas that are rich in texture and visual complexity. These large-scale, abstract collages are assembled out of bits of billboards, handmade advertisements, foil, string, and permanent wave end-papers from beauty shops arranged, layered, singed, sanded, and bleached into brilliantly hued and dynamic painterly compositions that seem to sprawl and swirl. Loosely gridded and often map-like, these “paintings” reference the artist’s interest in the formal traditions of modernist abstraction as well as the urban communities from which he excavates his materials.

One of the Addison’s recent acquisitions, Crossing the Threshold is part of a series of “white” paintings with titles drawn from a book the artist read about hidden messages contained in the Sistine Chapel that have the supposed power to unlock the mysteries of the universe. In a similar way, the densely layered color, text, and imagery lying beneath the mostly white surface of these abstract paintings offer the viewer glimpses into a mysterious subtext of alternate and parallel realities.

Allison Kemmerer
Curator of Photography and Contemporary Art

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Mark Bradford: You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You) Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University , 5/7/2010 - 9/30/2011
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
80 @ 80 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/15/2011 - 12/31/2011
Exterior Spaces, Interior Places Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/2/2014 - 1/4/2015
Heaven and Earth Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/7/2015 - 4/5/2015
Eye on the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2016 - 3/19/2017
Eye on the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/1/2017 - 7/30/2017
4 x 4 Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2018 - 7/31/2019
Learning to Look: The Addison at 90 Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/8/2021 - 2/6/2022

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