Serralves opens first Mark Bradford exhibition in Portugal
ANDThis show, Bradford’s first in Portugal, revolves around his artistic output of the last three years, works created during and immediately before the covid-19 pandemic.
The aim of the 60-year-old artist is, through this exhibition, which will be open until June 19, 2022, to reflect on this moment in history, reacting to the growing social and racial tensions in the United States of America (USA).
Bradford, “for whom ancient mythology has always been a source of inspiration”, according to Serralves, produced for this exhibition a new series of paintings, tapestries and works on paper based on “The Unicorn Hunt”, a set of medieval tapestries whose theme is the unicorn and produced in the Netherlands around 1500.
During a press visit today, the artist explained that the exhibition shows “history, the relationship with the body, politics and materiality”.
Saying he doesn’t want to impose any message, Mark Bradford said he tries to make people question, have memory and look to the future.
“Looking to the past and the future at the same time,” he said.
Mark Bradford said that the exhibition focuses on the work he has been doing during this period of crisis and, therefore, he expects him to visit “Ágora” to take questions and to retire from the works his own meanings and messages.
Serralves points out that, through a physical approach to the material presence of painting, the American has addressed crucial issues such as AIDS, misrepresentation and the fear of queer and homosexual identity, racism in the US, and more recently, the crisis arising from covid-19.
Serralves is the first museum to receive a major exhibition of the artist since representing the US at the Venice Biennale, in 2017, with the exhibition “Tomorrow is another day” (“Tomorrow is another day”).
Thus, and to accompany the first presentation in Portugal of the work of Mark Bradford, the Serralves Museum will publish a book that documents his production over the last two years.
The exhibition “Ágora” is organized by the Serralves Foundation, curated by the museum director, Philippe Vergne, under the coordination of curator Filipa Loureiro.
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