#ak shade

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford  

This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox's important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Clyfford Still’s paintings have been compared to bodies or living organisms. In PH-266 (1949-M), the artist’s use of color gives the impression that the jagged salmon, burgundy, and fawn-colored forms have only revealed themselves after a painstaking process of tearing and violent rupture.

While Still dismissed such figurative readings of his painting, he believed they each possessed an inner life or spark. In a letter written after his 1959 exhibition in Buffalo, Still recalled, “One problem we had was the tendency of the museum people to over-light all of my paints . . . my last instruction to [museum director] Mr. Smith was, ‘You can turn the lights out. The paintings will carry their own fire.’”

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK

Image: Clyfford Still (American, 1904–1980). PH-266 (1949‐M), 1949. Oil on canvas, 93 × 69 1/2 inches (236.2 × 176.5 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Gift of the artist, 1964. © 2016 City & County of Denver, Courtesy Clyfford Still Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Tom Loonan.

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox's important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Bradford’s interest in midcentury abstract painting dates back to his time at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the 1990s. Abstract Expressionism, however, seldom included the voices of racial minorities or women. In a recent interview, the artist stated:

Being black, what I find interesting is that at the same time as [the Abstract Expressionist artists] were trying to establish an identifiable American school of art, of abstract painting, we were still segregated. . . . So, at the time in the ’50s when you had the white, US cultural machine establishing and communicating to the world this brand of America through Abstract Expressionism, it was totally disregarding what was going on politically in the country. Which is not to say that the artists who were involved were apolitical. It’s strange though that in the ‘50s there was this determination to champion abstraction, devoid of figuration, at a time when the country was being shaped by civil rights, which was essentially figurative.

Bradford’s commitment to showcasing the expressive potential of color through elaborate compositions in Duck Walk and other paintings illustrates his dialogue with artists such as Still. As if in response to Still’s treatment of paint, which at times he applied in aggressive impasto, Duck Walk appears heavy with the pronounced texture of the paper and battling shades of black and other colors.

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK

Image: Mark Bradford (American, born 1961). Duck Walk, 2016. Mixed media on canvas, two parts, 108 1/4 × 84 1/4 inches (275 × 214 cm) each. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. © Mark Bradford, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford 

This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox's important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

As early as 1941, when most of his peers were still making figurative or semi-figurative paintings, Still created this nearly monochromatic black canvas. PH-154 (1941-2-C) is one of scores of predominantly black works he would paint over the course of his career. While Still was not the only Abstract Expressionist to extensively use black, his mastery of it was nevertheless extraordinary.

Still’s layered black and near-black tones are enveloping and provocative, charged with drama. He rejected the common interpretation of black as a somber tone that lacked the dynamism or energy of brightly colored abstractions, and he famously said, “Black was never a color of death or terror for me. I think of it as warm—and generative. But color is what you choose to make it.”

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK.

Image: Clyfford Still (American, 1904–1980). PH-154 (1941-2-C), 1941–42. Oil on canvas, 42 3/4 × 32 1/2 inches (108.6 × 82.6 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Gift of the artist, 1964. © 2016 City & County of Denver, Courtesy Clyfford Still Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Tom Loonan.

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford

This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox’s important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Bradford does not create paintings in the conventional sense. Shade and Legendary were not tinted with washes of paint but rather were stained using wet paper. The artist crumpled and sculpted the soaking-wet black paper and placed it directly on the canvas. Peeling the paper off after it had stained the canvas, but before it could permanently adhere, Bradford created a subtle composition that may resemble a graphite drawing. These works reveal how black is not a monochrome; rather, it is composed of countless variants, including lavender, gray, blue, and charcoal.

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK

Image: Mark Bradford (American, born 1961). Shade, 2016. Mixed media on canvas, 60 × 48 inches (152.4 × 121.9 cm). Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. © Mark Bradford, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford

This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox’s important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Dramatic in its scale and sharp contrasting colors, PH-48 (1957-D-No. 1) exemplifies Still’s ability to create visually complex yet balanced compositions—each jagged jolt of yellow and beige seamlessly interconnects with the dense black surface. The work’s paradox lies in the way that the opposition between color and black creates an energetic tension between advancing and receding space.

1957-D-No. 1 is one of two paintings by Still that entered the museum’s collection in the late 1950s. Gordon M. Smith, then the museum’s director, and Seymour H. Knox, Jr., worked hard to win Still's trust and finally convinced him of their sincere interest in his work. After Smith invited Still to organize his own large-scale survey, the artist’s first, at the museum in 1959, Still donated thirty-one paintings to the Albright-Knox in 1964.

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK 

TOP: Clyfford Still (American, 1904–1980). PH-48 (1957‐D‐No. 1), 1957. Oil on canvas, 113 × 159 inches (287 × 403.9 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1959. © 2016 City & County of Denver, Courtesy Clyfford Still Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Tom Loonan. BOTTOM: Installation views from Clyfford Still’s 1959 survey exhibition at the Albright Art Gallery. Images courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. © 2016 Albright-Knox Art Gallery

[albrightknox]

Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford 

This exhibition features the work of celebrated American artists Mark Bradford and Clyfford Still. For the exhibition, Bradford has helped select more than twenty paintings from the Albright-Knox's important collection of works by Still. In adjacent galleries, Bradford presents a group of his own paintings—created specifically for this exhibition—that manifest an ongoing conversation with both Still’s abstractions and the broader legacy of Abstract Expressionism.

Bradford works with everyday materials more readily found in hardware than art supply stores: caulking, string, rope, paper, glue, water, bleach, and varnish. To make Butch Queen, he collaged black and white paper to canvas, sometimes splashing the black paper with bleach and water before adding another layer. Bradford then cut into the thickly stacked paper fragments with a sander. This action generated arcing creases, draws, pulls, and paper crevasses, offering a glimpse beyond the surface.

The dramatic and intricate process Bradford used to create Butch Queen and the other earth-toned and black-and-white compositions in the exhibition is a familiar one for the artist. The palette, however, is new and reveals his dialogue with Still’s own often-somber tones.

Stay tuned to our Tumblr blog to learn more about the works in this exhibition, which will be on view through October 2, 2016. Shade is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay by Albright-Knox Senior Curator Cathleen Chaffee and an interview with Bradford on Still by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Available now through Shop AK

Image: Mark Bradford (American, born 1961). Butch Queen, 2016. Mixed media on canvas, 102 1/4 × 144 1/2 inches (259.7 × 367 cm). Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. © Mark Bradford, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.