I was pleasantly surprised to find out upon entering that Tuesdays are free admission at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see The Mark Bradford Exhibition. I am happy to report that Mark Bradford was in fact one of the artists on my "emerging artists to watch" list that was created at Sotheby's after visits to many art fairs, private collections, museums and galleries. I saw his piece titled Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year at Armory Week New York 2010. I really responded to his work then and I still do now. At his MCA retrospective, I found the decollage pieces to be the most intriguing and aesthetically pleasing. They really reminded me of Robert Rauschenberg and Guillermo Kuitca. Being someone who values both art and writing, I have always believed that titles should be just as important as the work itself. Learning that Bradford shares this belief regarding titles and references in his work made me appreciate him as an artist even more. "Bradford describes the titling process as organic, it can happen in the beginning, middle or end of the work." It is fascinating to think that artists can go into a work with a clear intention of what it should be and it can become just what they envisioned or something totally different. They can also go into the creative process not knowing where it will take them. All of these factors effect the titling process, when it happens and how it happens.
Mark Bradford, Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year
Mark Bradford at MCA
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