KATHERINE BRADFORD’S HEADS ARE ABSURD :-)
Words: Emily Nam [New York City]
Katherine Bradford [1942] is a New York-based painter. Her paintings are vibrant, eclectic and multidimensional in their visual and psychological experience. Bradford depicts human activities amongst a colloquial landscape, embedded with humor and thrilling adventures — the dimensions that these works permeate is vast. I’m compelled by Bradford’s work for its plastic and color-full nature. I am particularly interested in the portrayal of Bradford’s heads, which evidently I have discovered are absurd.
Bradford recently shared an image on her instagram - her Father, with a young Katherine perched on his lap. The resemblance in these elongated ellipses, of Bradford’s head (now) and of her late Father’s, is indicative of the relationship that heads impose on our understanding of self, through relational identity. We live in a world where racism, identity and how we look physically or dress, can have a large impact on the experience that we have, amongst embedded social structures. In a perplexing way, Bradford creates room for a new form of identity that is playful and makes obsolete any preconceived ideas about the human form.
Katherine Bradford, Mother Carry, 2022, 68 × 80 in (172.72 × 203.20 cm) Acrylic on canvas [Image: Canada]
Bradford claims that she does not paint from observation — “My human beings are closely related to the paint they’re made of. And they’re invented. I guess you can tell that because I take liberty with their anatomy. [Katherine Bradford c/o Canada]”. While not depicting expected human anatomy, it feels that these heads are in part, a reflection of the pulsating psyche that is embedded in our human experience — and we are gently being asked to explore.
After viewing Bradford’s New York exhibition at Canada, Arms at Sea (2023), I was engrossed in the heads on figures that Bradford presented. A head - typically separated from the rest of the body by a neck, and containing the brain, mouth, and sense organs - seemed to exist in her works and at the same time was not apparent at all. Mother Carry (2022) represents an immense amount of joy in the facial features of the central figure, which I identify by two circles for eyes and a banana shaped mouth — a feeling of freedom is imbued, while the mother, who I assume is being carried, holds a sense of unease, “Will they drop me? She cries”. Adjacent is a head that is pressed up against the maternal torso, expressing a deep love and care for the body that it is holding. It is clear these figures, each with their own perplexing and likely developmental roles amongst their siblings, are together carrying their mother and they love her.
I am evidently projecting my own point of view and experience on these works, but I believe this is what makes Bradford’s heads accessible to the viewer. It is impossible to not like them, question them and shake in a space of uncertainty of what am I actually looking at.
La Danse inachevée (‘The Uncompleted Dance’) Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Image: Emily Nam
In anticipation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Cultural Olympiad is a collection of works at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, France (on view to August 25, 2024). Meandering from the monumental triptych by Matisse, La Danse inachevée (1930-1933) [This is a preparatory work, a first version, for The Dance (1933), housed at the Barnes Foundation, where it is installed within the three arches of the main gallery in Philadelphia] — the participant is guided down the stairs into the main galleries, where Bradford’s triptych, The Athletes (2022) is vibrantly apparent and visible. The Athletes (2022) depicts interlinked characters related in their pressure and action around balls, a bag and some heads. The dialogue with the larger than life Matisse silhouettes, is a clever curatorial juxtaposition, with the similarity of movement between a community of figures in Bradford’s modern day encounter.
There is an ambiguity in the nature of this ball sport, that is being played and its alignment with the movement and motion of these circular head-like shapes. I locate; 2 ears, 2 noses, 2 mouths, 2 eyes, 10 spherical forms (6 of which can be argued are connected to a neck-like structure), 5 figurative forms and a Prada handbag. Each moment, imposes a pressure on the next (left to right through the image). Push over, up and down - hands enforcing, arms holding up and elbows in motion. Each movement actions a pathway through a group of connected bodies, which appear to be standing on a pregnant rock form, oscillating deep in space. In fact, maybe theses are not basketballs (which I assumed them to be, Bradford is an American), but the many moons of Jupiter, a planet discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.
The Athletes, 2022 - Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, France [Image: Emily Nam]
A recent fundraising collaboration, between Magic Breky and Counter Editions, curated by art talker/collector/UK based-actor Russell Tovey - includes a suite of prints by five leading international artists, this includes; Katherine Bradford, Jordan Casteel, Ulala Imi, Francesca Mollet and Nicolas Party. Each artist has created a signed, limited edition print and one-third of profits are extended to the charity organization Magic Breakfast, who are humbly feeding the many young heads of underprivileged school children in England and Scotland, combating early morning hunger and ensuring children are fueled to learn. Bradford’s contribution to this curation, titled Person with Colors is an enigmatic figure hovering within and in front of a striped, multi-color curtain. Bradford appears to have a keen interest of placing figures in outer space (Fathers, 2013-2016 comes to mind) and I cannot help assume that this figure is standing on a purple planet and a vibrant sea of Pride colors, are beaming across the galaxy. An ephemeral feeling is experienced as Bradford’s non-gendered body shimmers. What about the head? Is there one and which way is it looking, if not at us? On close investigation, the sweet pink wishbone shaped form could be interpreted as a head and shoulder encapsulating a torso, that is faceless - in reality, it is a conglomerate of fleshy brush strokes connected to two dangling purple/orange arms.
Katherine Bradford, Person with Colors (2024) [Image: Counter Editions]
From my own life experience I have resolved that the illogical moments of life, are where we have the space to question those parts of ourselves that feel vulnerable and in turn discover something new about our own existence. Can Bradford’s peculiar heads, alleviate our suffering with identity through the ambiguous and reflective nature of how these shapes are described? A plethora of emotions reverberate from Bradford’s visual works and it is through these abstracted identities, that we are being given an opportunity to take a look at, head on, what is inside.