Mark Bradford, Hauser & Wirth, Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian
Mark Bradford and Artist, "Mark Bradford: Pickett's Charge (Detail)", contributed by Nadine Tanio, Center for Ethnography, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 16 April 2020, accessed 26 April 2024. http://www.centerforethnography.org/content/mark-bradford-picketts-charge-detail
Critical Commentary
I first saw Mark Bradford's work at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2015. Bradford, a native of Los Angeles, works in large scale formats. His installation the Hammer covered an entire wall and the privilege of seeing his work up close lay in his visceral invitation to participate in the excavation of a landscape.
The Hammer describes his work as examining "strategies of mapping" and psychogeography.
I chose this detail of Pickett's Charge for two reasons: 1) it is owned by the Hirshhorn Museum, part of The Smithsonian Institution and 2) this detail captures the layered meanings that Bradford uncovers, explores, questions throughout his work which are also at play in the Toxic geography of 3200 Foothill Blvd.