Untitled/Explosion

2009

Not on view

A pioneer of socially grounded and politically charged abstraction, Mark Bradford often features very little actual paint in his signature canvases. Untitled/ Explosion is a dynamic collage comprised of layers of wet papers adhered to a canvas divided by colored cords of synthetic fiber that form a sunburst pattern. Depending on the viewer’s perspective, this form conveys a force of either cohesion or dispersion. For the artist, the form alludes to the target, a motif both evocative of the history of abstract painting and of anti-Black violence in the United States.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Inscriptions and Markings

Provenance

Title: Untitled/Explosion
Artist: Mark Bradford (American, born Los Angeles, California, 1961)
Date: 2009
Medium: Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions: 72 × 60 × 1 3/4 in. (182.9 × 152.4 × 4.4 cm)
Classification: Works on Paper
Credit Line: Gift of Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, 2025
Object Number: 2025.843
Rights and Reproduction: © Mark Bradford
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Mark Bradford

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Crack Between the Floorboards, Mark Bradford American, Printed and painted paper, masking tape, and acrylic media on canvas — Crack Between the Floorboards
Mark Bradford
2014

Gray and Brass, John Sloan American, Oil on canvas, American — Gray and Brass
John Sloan
1907

Dancers Practicing at the Barre, Edgar Degas French, Mixed media on canvas — Dancers Practicing at the Barre
Edgar Degas
1877

Untitled, Mark Bradford American, Etching, photogravure, and chine collé — Untitled
Multiple artists/makers
2012

Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American — Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15

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