David Hammons
David Hammons is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s.
Early life
David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten children being raised by a single mother. This dynamic caused great financial strain on his family during his childhood; he later stated that he is uncertain how they managed to 'get by' during this time. Although not inclined academically, Hammons showed an early talent for drawing and art; however the ease at which these practices came to him caused him to develop disdain for it. In 1962 he moved to Los Angeles, where he started attending Chouinard Art Institute from 1966 to 1968 and the Otis Art Institute from 1968 to 1972. He was never officially enrolled there, but Charles White allowed him to attend night classes. There he was influenced by artists such as Charles White, Bruce Nauman, John Baldessari, Noah Purifoy, and Chris Burden, all of whom would soon be internationally known. During his time in LA, he met Senga Nengudi, a performance and conceptual artist with whom he later shared a studio. With Nengudi and others, Hammons formed Studio Z , an art collective that collaborated on artistic works. Other members of Studio Z included Maren Hassinger, Ronn Davis, Duval Lewis, RoHo, Franklin Parker, Barbara McCullough, Houston Conwill, and Joe Ray. In 1974 Hammons settled in New York City, where he slowly became better known nationally. He still lives and works in New York.Personal life
In 1966, Hammons married Rebecca Williams, with whom he had two children. The couple divorced in 1972.In 2003, Hammons married Chie Hasegawa, a Japanese-born artist.
Hammons has been reluctant to discuss his early and personal life, as he wishes to avoid his work being framed in a certain way. This is exhibited in how he inverts the stereotypical relationship between creator and curator, stating "The way I see it, the Whitney Biennial and Documenta need me, but I don't need them".
Hammons has been philanthropic with other black artists, namely by buying their work and helping them gain recognition.
Art practice
Through his varied work and media, and frequent changes in direction, Hammons has managed to avoid one signature visual style. Much of his work makes allusions to, and shares concerns with minimalism and post-minimal art, but with added Duchampian references to the place of Black people in American society. Hammons' work is made of not only allusions, but also metaphors. These metaphors develop into symbols that hold significant meaning in the art world as well as in the public eye. David Hammons continues to offers a crucial interpretation of the African-American art history in the life of a colored person through these symbols. It has been stated by Anthony Huberman that "Hammons work plays with art the way a jazz musician plays with sound - he gets inside it, bends it, twists it around and keeps it from getting too still or getting too comfortable."David Hammons was considered quite distinguished from his fellow young African American artists of his time; he was seen as "postblack - avant la lettre, his work alluded to atrusim the rest of us are just waking up to".
On James Turrell's works concerning perception of light, Hammons said "I wish I could make art like that, but we're too oppressed for me to be dabbling out there.... I would love to do that because that could also be very black. You know, as a black artist, dealing just with light. They would say, "how in the hell could he deal with that, coming from where he did?" I want to get to that, I'm trying to get to that, but I'm not free enough yet. I still feel I have to get my message out."
Body prints
At the start of his career during the 1960s Hammons primary medium was body prints. This unique art was made by greasing Hammons' own body; then, he would press it on the paper and add graphite or another medium to accentuate the body print. Hammons acknowledges that he borrowed this technique from the French Artist, Yves Klein. Much of Hammons' Body Prints reflect one of his main influences for his artwork - that being race. Much of his work reflects his commitment to the civil rights and Black Power movements. As a black man experiencing these movements first-hand his artwork is rooted deeply in his personal experiences. These themes have been demonstrated in a range of his body prints. This is specifically seen in his "Spade" works he created during the 1970s - the word being used ironically to reflect Hammons lack of understanding as to why it is used as a derogatory term for African-Americans. Although not exclusively limited to Body Prints, many of the artworks in this series are conducted in this medium. There is Spade, a 1974 print where the artist pressed his face against the shape leaving a caricature-like imprint of Negroid features. Also in the Spade series is Spade this piece depicts a body print embossed onto a canvas depicting a Spade card you would find in a pack of cards. This artwork attempts to reclaim the term transforming its meaning from a racist term into a "badge of honor". Similarly, his 1970 painting, Black First, America Second, is 2 images of himself being wrapped into the American flag. It is his black self and his American self. He feels as if these two identities that he has are split and fundamentally at odds. They are constantly fighting each other and cannot be joined. Similarly, there is his 'Injustice Case' where he depicts himself bound to a chair and gagged. This image references the treatment of Bobby Seale during the Trial of the Chicago 7 and Hammons' attempts to comment on the inequity suffered by African-Americans at the time. This piece in particular reflects Hammons ability to capture the personal experience of being a Black man in America, especially at the time of the Civil Rights Movement, and has been described by Michael Govan as "an icon for American Art." This piece also reflects Hammons natural artistic talent as it was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art merely a year after it was made.Sculpture
Later in his career, Hammons has explored the sculptural medium in creating pieces. In his 1970's Spade series included works such as Bird where the jazz musician Charlie Parker is evoked by a spade emerging from the mouthpiece of a saxophone. The name of the piece reflecting Parker's nickname of "Yardbird" or "Bird". Similarly, there is Spade with Chains, where the artist employs the provocative, derogatory term, coupled with the literal gardening instrument, in order to make a visual pun between the blade of a shovel and an African mask, and a contemporary statement about the issues of bondage and resistance. In his seminal piece, African-American Flag Hammons tackles the topic head-on. The piece depicts the American Flag in the Garvey Colours of Black, Red and Green, these colours also being used in the UNIA Flag. The importance of this piece is demonstrated in its status as part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A copy of the flag is hoisted at the entrance of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Hammons also created a pan-African flag in his work Oh say can you see. The title of this work refers to lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner". Whilst African-American Flag "is a nod to the centrality of the Black experience in America, then Oh Say Can You See – faded, tattered and riddled with holes – is emblematic of the backlash against that belief." Frieze named this later work No.8 of "The 25 Best Works of the 21st Century".These racial themes have been explored in other sculptural pieces. Hammons use of discarded or abject materials, including but not limited to elephant dung, chicken parts, strands of African-American hair, and bottles of cheap wine provide a crucial interpretation of American life, and art history, from the perspective of a Black person. Many critics see these objects as evocative of the desperation of the poor, Black urban class, but Hammons reportedly saw a sort of sacrosanct or ritualistic power in these materials, which is why he utilized them so extensively. For example, using hair gathered from barbershops and pasting it on top of large stones. These discarded objects have become some of David's Hammons most well known sculptures that represent the life of an African-America living in the United States. His Untitled piece, made over construction rebar coated with dreadlocked hair, was sold to the Whitney Museum for a hundred thousand dollars in 1992. Hammons piece In the Hood has evolved to be a symbol of what it is like to be young, black, and a male. The sculpture was done in 1993 and showed in the Mnuchin Gallery in New York. This simple sculpture is a cut piece of cloth nailed to the wall with a wire threaded through the lining to open the hood up evoking the idea of lynching and becomes a microcosm for what it is like being black in America. It may be simple, but it is so effective and aligns with how much of Hammons' work is done. In the Hood
However, Hammons artwork is not limited to dealing with the theme of race. He also tackles hierarchical class structure by reflecting it in the dynamic between young black men and basketball. Hammons created a series of larger-than-life basketball hoops, meticulously decorated with bottle caps, evoking Islamic mosaic and design. An example of these 'altars' is High Falutin or Basketball Chandelier, the latter placing a basketball hoop at its standard height, but rendered unusable by his use of materials - cut glass beads and ornamental sconces.. However, where this theme is most prominently demonstrated is in his 1986 piece Higher Goals. Hammons places an ordinary basketball hoop, net, and backboard on a three-story high pole - commenting on the almost impossible aspirations of sports stardom as a way out of the ghetto. Hammons is noted to say, "It takes five to play on a team, but there are thousands who want to play—not everyone will make it, but even if they don't at least they tried." Higher Goals was on view at the Cadman Plaza Park in New York from 1986 to 1987. He continues his 'Bird' pieces with his 1990 work of the same name. This time he addresses how African-American's have been given wide opportunities in certain industries, such as music and sport, however limited opportunities in others, for example, the Arts. This piece places a basketball, which is adorned with feathers and chicken wire, in the frame of a white-painted Victorian birdcage. The cage symbolizing the metaphorical cage that the African-American community still finds themselves in.
In 2007 Hammons collaborated with his wife, Chie Hasegawa on a piece that enjoyed public acclaim. In the posh uptown gallery specially selected by Hammons, they installed full-length fur coats on antique dress forms—two minks, a fox, a sable, a wolf and a chinchilla. They then burned, stained and painted the backs of the coats. This turned the coats into a 'sartorial trap' conjuring thoughts of politics, consumerism, animism, animal rights and more. The irony of this Untitled Exhibition was not merely limited to the coats themselves, but also the location of the exhibition. Presenting it at L & M Arts in uptown Manhattan was a specific decision by Hammons, as he wish to invoke the irony of the coats fitting the representation of Upper East Manhattan lifestyle, yet their awkward fit in other places in New York. Similarly, his 1990–95 work Smoke Screen is made of a swath of golden fabric, giving the piece, at first glance, an upper-class or regal look. However, on closer inspection the fabric is covered in burn holes and cigarette butts adorn the piece and the floor surrounding it.
In 2021, Hammons collaborated with the Hudson River Park Trust and the Whitney Museum to create Days End. This piece is a "ghost monument" to the late artist, Gordon Matta-Clark. Specifically, the art serve as a tribute to Matta-Clark's 'Pier 52' by creating a structural frame of the warehouse that made up the artist work. Matta-Clark had cut five openings in the walls, ceilings,0 and roof of an abandoned pier shed. This will be Hammons only permanent public piece to date. The piece itself is made of steel rods, with half being on land and the others being on steel piles in the Hudson River.
In May 2021 the Whitney Museum of American Art unveiled Hammons completed sculpture Day's End in Hudson River Park across from the Museum itself. The ghostly architectural exoskeletal outline of a pier was inspired by and created in tribute to Day's End, Cinical Inversion an earlier piece by Gordon Matta-Clark where the earlier artist made five incisions into the Pier 52 building which stood on the same site previously.