Mark Bradford (B. 1961)

‘If something exists on the periphery of culture, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has to exist as peripheral culture. If I choose to pick material that is obviously in the public domain and use it in my studio to produce abstract painting, once I do it belongs to a very different history or myth that has been venerated for a long time. The lines are multiplying; that’s why I always trace my own lines. I do draw, but then I go over the lines with another medium, or go over them with a string. That tracing removes the emotion from the gesture’ (M. Bradford, quoted in Mark Bradford, exh. cat., Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, p. 97).