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David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979

David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979

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On Hammons' seminal series that ingeniously merged print and performance, celebration and critique

The first book dedicated to these pivotal early works on paper, David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979 brings together the monoprints and collages in which the artist used the body as both a drawing tool and printing plate to explore performative, unconventional forms of image-making. Hammons created the body prints by greasing his own body--or that of another person--with substances including margarine and baby oil, pressing or rolling body parts against the paper, and sprinkling the surface with charcoal and powdered pigment. The resulting impressions are intimately direct indexes of faces, skin, and hair that exist somewhere between spectral portraits and physical traces. Hammons' body prints represent the origin of his artistic language, one that has developed over a long and continuing career and that emphasizes both the artifacts and subjects of contemporary Black life in the United States.
More than a half-century after they were made, these early works on paper exemplify Hammons' celebration of the sacredness of objects touched or made by the Black body, and his biting critique of racial oppression. The body prints highlighted in this volume introduce the major themes of a 50-year career that has become central to the history of postwar American art. The book features a conversation between curator and activist Linda Goode Bryant and artist Senga Nengudi, as well as a photo essay by photographer Bruce W. Talamon, who documented Hammons at work in his Los Angeles studio in 1974.
Born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, David Hammons moved to Los Angeles in 1963 at the age of 20 and began making his body prints several years later. He studied at Otis Art Institute with Charles White and became part of a younger generation of Black avant-garde artists loosely associated with the Black Arts Movement. He moved to New York in 1978.



Binding Type: Paperback
Author: David Hammons, Laura Hoptman (Introduction by), Linda Goode Bryant (Interviewer)
Published: 03/30/2021
Publisher: Drawing Center
ISBN: 9780942324419
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.50d

8.9" L x 5.9" W x 0.5" H

This item ships parcel via UPS, FedEx, or DHL, and a signature is required for packages valued over $200. Large quantities, however, may ship using one of our trusted freight carriers, for which a delivery appointment will need to be scheduled.

Please contact help@trnk-nyc.com with any additional questions regarding shipping or delivery.

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  • On Hammons' seminal series that ingeniously merged print and performance, celebration and critique

    The first book dedicated to these pivotal early works on paper, David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979 brings together the monoprints and collages in which the artist used the body as both a drawing tool and printing plate to explore performative, unconventional forms of image-making. Hammons created the body prints by greasing his own body--or that of another person--with substances including margarine and baby oil, pressing or rolling body parts against the paper, and sprinkling the surface with charcoal and powdered pigment. The resulting impressions are intimately direct indexes of faces, skin, and hair that exist somewhere between spectral portraits and physical traces. Hammons' body prints represent the origin of his artistic language, one that has developed over a long and continuing career and that emphasizes both the artifacts and subjects of contemporary Black life in the United States.
    More than a half-century after they were made, these early works on paper exemplify Hammons' celebration of the sacredness of objects touched or made by the Black body, and his biting critique of racial oppression. The body prints highlighted in this volume introduce the major themes of a 50-year career that has become central to the history of postwar American art. The book features a conversation between curator and activist Linda Goode Bryant and artist Senga Nengudi, as well as a photo essay by photographer Bruce W. Talamon, who documented Hammons at work in his Los Angeles studio in 1974.
    Born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, David Hammons moved to Los Angeles in 1963 at the age of 20 and began making his body prints several years later. He studied at Otis Art Institute with Charles White and became part of a younger generation of Black avant-garde artists loosely associated with the Black Arts Movement. He moved to New York in 1978.



    Binding Type: Paperback
    Author: David Hammons, Laura Hoptman (Introduction by), Linda Goode Bryant (Interviewer)
    Published: 03/30/2021
    Publisher: Drawing Center
    ISBN: 9780942324419
    Pages: 144
    Weight: 0.65lbs
    Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.50d
  • 8.9" L x 5.9" W x 0.5" H

  • This item ships parcel via UPS, FedEx, or DHL, and a signature is required for packages valued over $200. Large quantities, however, may ship using one of our trusted freight carriers, for which a delivery appointment will need to be scheduled.

    Please contact help@trnk-nyc.com with any additional questions regarding shipping or delivery.

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