Mark Bradford: End Papers Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Through January 10, 2021
M
Mark Bradford: End Papers, on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through January 10, 2021, focuses on the key material and fundamental motif the artist employed early in his career and has returned to periodically over the past two decades: end papers. Bradford learned to use end papers as a hairdresser in his mother’s beauty salon in Los Angeles. These small
sheets of translucent paper protect hair from overheating in the process of using curlers to create permanent waves. Part painting and part collage, the colored End Paper works feature grids with various hues that pulsate across the surface. Bradford has said, “I learned my own way of constructing paintings through the End Papers—how to create space, how to use color. And how to provide a new kind
White Girl, 2002. Mixed media on canvas. 95 × 145 inches. Collection of Jim and Irene Karp. © Mark Bradford 4
KEY MAGAZINE
July 2020
