Mark Bradford: End Papers

On view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is “Mark Bradford: End Papers,” an exhibition with works primarily constructed from end papers, which the artist learned to use as a hairdresser in his mother’s salon. The exhibition focuses on the key material and fundamental motif employed by Mark Bradford in his early career, that he returned to periodically over the past 2 decades. Part painting and part collage, the works in the show allowed the artist to produce not only beautiful but prophetic paintings, in terms of layering abstraction with personal and social content. “Bradford has adapted the materials and processes of the hairdressing profession to be both medium and message in his art,” said Michael Auping, former Chief Curator at the Modern.