David Hammons

Abstract

"David Hammons is a collection of essays on the one of the most important living Black artists of our time, David Hammons (b. 1943). Documenting five decades of visual practice from 1982 to the present, the book features contributions from scholars, artists, and cultural workers, and includes numerous images of the artist and his work that are not widely available. Contributions include essays from cultural critics including Guy Trebay and Greg Tate; artists Coco Fusco and Glenn Ligon; and scholars such as Robert Farris Thompson, Alex Alberro, and Manthia Diawara. A star of the West Coast Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and the winner of a Prix de Rome prize as well as a MacArthur Fellowship, David Hammons rose to fame in Los Angeles with his body prints, in which he used his entire body as a printing plate. His later work engaged with materials that he found in urban environments - from greasy brown paper bags, discarded hair from barber shops, and empty bottles of cheap wine - which he turned into things of wonder while also commenting on a country's neglect of its citizens. In this volume, a new generation of scholars, Tobias Wofford, Abbe Schriber, and Sampada Aranke, broaden the theoretical mapping of Hammons's career and its impact, challenging viewers to imagine, in the words of Aranke, 'how to see like Hammons.'" -- Publisher's description.

Contents

A history of new forms (2016) / Ben Okri -- Human pegs, pole dreams (1982) / Gylbert Coker -- Pole vault (1986) / Guy Trebay -- Interview with David Hammons (1986) / Kellie Jones -- David Hammons interview (1991) / Steve Cannon et al. -- David Hammons : "knowing their past" (1992) / Robert Farris Thompson -- Wreaking havoc on the signified (1995) / Coco Fusco -- In the thick of it : David Hammons and hair culture in the 1970s (1998) / Kellie Jones -- Black light : David Hammons and the poetics of emptiness (2004) / Glenn Ligon -- An elective affinity : David Hammons's Hidden from view and Made in the People's Republic of Harlem (2005) / Claire Tancons -- David Hammons's Sheep raffle at Dak'Art 2004 : reading Black art through Léopold Sédar Senghor's Négritude (2008) / Manthia Diawara -- The joke of painting : on David Hammons at L&M Arts, New York (2011) / Alexander Alberro -- Dark angels of dust : David Hammons and the art of streetwise transcendentalism (2011) / Greg Tate -- Can you dig it? Signifying race in David Hammons's Spade series (2011) / Tobias Wofford -- Good mirrors ain't cheap (2016) / Kellie Jones -- "Those who know don't tell" : David Hammons c. 1981 (2019) / Abbe Schriber -- How to see like Hammons (2021) / Sampada Aranke -- In conversation (2021) / Linda Goode Bryant and Senga Nengudi.