Provenance
Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owener
Exhibited
Istanbul, Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), 17 September - 13 November 2011
San Francisco, SFMOMA, Mark Bradford, 18 February - 27 May 2012
Literature
White Cube, Mark Bradford: Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank, London, p. 126 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Within just two decades Mark Bradford has established an extraordinary artistic legacy by persistently grappling with the strictures of Abstract Painting. His formidable corpus of works navigates the variegated and often disparate social and topological structures of his home city of Los Angeles, establishing a practice that is richly layered in both material and meaning. Bradford clothes his canvases with the tattered accoutrements of the streets that surround his studio, layering fragments of billboard paper, posters, household paint and urban detritus before assailing the surface with sandpaper and hardware tools. The intricate lines are gouged from the surface as if the artist has literally carved out the paths and patterns of the streets around him, mapping out the architectural structures from the same materials that once clung to their facades. Within these rugged lines one is able to peer into the preceding matrices that represent earlier stages in the work’s development, as if to observe a concealed history deposited within the very sediment that constitutes it. This is the artists’ history, the city’s history and the history of art combined into a single gesture. Amongst the unruly furrows one can find the palpable textures of Robert Ryman, the gestural expressivity of Karel Appel, the enigmatic layering of Asger Jorn and the rugged chromatic might of Clyfford Still - all holding court with the slogans and saturated colours that constitute the commercial images with see daily. In this respect, Bradford stands alone. No artist has ever constructed paintings in quite his manner, and rarely have they solved the problems of art as shrewdly or bravely.

Rat Catcher of Hamelin III is a masterful demarcation of this revered methodology, and offers us a rare insight to the artist’s own lived history. On July 7 2010, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested a man suspected of murdering at least 10 women since the mid-1980s, known colloquially as the ‘Grim-Sleeper’. In an attempt to identify other potential victims, the police publicly released more than 180 photos of mostly African-American women, posting their images on 50 billboards throughout the city along with the caption ‘anyone wanting to remain anonymous may call Crimestoppers.’ Many of the people depicted were the family and friends of the suspect and the others become the subject of intense scrutiny that was caused without their consultation. Amid the ensuing controversy the billboards were taken down, and Bradford contacted authorities to appropriate them for his own image-making. Breathing new meaning into the already historically saturated materials Bradford established a percipient voice amongst the prevailing abstraction of his works. Though their legibility has faded, you can still make out the fragmented phrases: ‘possession of the serial [killer],’ ‘these people,’ ‘these faces?’ and ‘dubbed in the media’ which act as the haunting traces of a dark period in the history of South Central Los Angeles.

Bradford’s concern with the socio-political relationship with power is clear here. He presents us with an abstract vision of life in South Central Los Angeles as he has experienced it; a disjointed urban chaos steeped in memories, conflicts and social injustice. His is an uncompromising vision, one that lays his feelings bare so that the viewer’s reaction shares in the honesty of his ambition.

Ο◆6

Mark Bradford

Rat Catcher of Hamelin III

mixed media on canvas
304.8 x 320 cm (120 x 125 7/8 in.)
Executed in 2011.

Estimate
£1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡

Sold for £3,733,000

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
+44 207 318 4063

Henry Highley
Head of Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4061

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 5 October 2016

1
Thomas Schütte
Kleiner Geist (Little Spirit) (Yellow)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £125,000
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2
Michaël Borremans
The Shirt
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £173,000
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3
Ugo Rondinone
SUNRISE. east. march
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
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4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,805,000
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5
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (White Butterfly Hawaiian Lapis)
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,265,000
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6
Mark Bradford
Rat Catcher of Hamelin III
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡
Sold for £3,733,000
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7
Mark Bradford
Click
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £665,000
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8
Sean Scully
Grey Red
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £665,000
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9
Andy Warhol
20 Pink Mao's
Estimate £4,000,000 - 6,000,000 ‡
Sold for £4,741,000
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10
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000
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11
Andy Warhol
Dollar Sign
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡
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12
This lot is no longer available.
13
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (767-2)
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,085,000
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14
Albert Oehlen
Amber
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £269,000
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15
Günther Förg
Untitled
Estimate £90,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £149,000
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16
Anselm Kiefer
Odi Navali
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡♠
Sold for £605,000
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17
Antony Gormley
Mountain and Sea
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £401,000
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18
Antony Gormley
Field II
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £221,000
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19
Damien Hirst
Figures in a Landscape
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠†
Sold for £305,000
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20
Damien Hirst
Untitled #2 (Spot Painting)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £509,000
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21
Bridget Riley
KA 2
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £293,000
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22
Emilio Vedova
Presenza N7V
Estimate £120,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £185,000
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23
Joe Bradley
Egyptian Freek
Estimate £90,000 - 150,000 ‡
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24
Sterling Ruby
SP33
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
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25
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26
Gary Hume
Rose
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £62,500
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27
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
$
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 Ω♠
Sold for £87,500
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28
Andy Warhol
Electric Chair
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 †
Sold for £143,000
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29
Ai Weiwei
Colour Jar
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 †
Sold for £137,000
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30
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Don Judd colorist) 5
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 †
Sold for £118,750
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 5 October 2016

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Ο◆6

Mark Bradford

Rat Catcher of Hamelin III

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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