Mark Bradford Adds Orange Paper to 38-Foot Obama Center Painting

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 20

Mark Bradford affixed a translucent orange sheet to “City of the Big Shoulders,” a 38-foot-tall work commissioned for the Obama Presidential Center’s atrium on Chicago’s South Side.
The addition turned a muted banana-yellow section into a brighter flare of light, reflecting Bradford’s practice of revising the patchwork canvas in place and “leav[ing] room for chaos.”
Chicago and Lake Michigan shaped the painting’s imagery, while rope, caulk and torn billboard strips point to the city’s industrial roots and Bradford’s materials-driven process.
The work is designed for the center’s tower museum space, where broad three-story windows flood the atrium with light and frame Bradford’s luminous vision of Chicago.

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