Diving into Mark Bradford’s “Deep Blue”

Color, texture, and terrain are the three words that best describe “Deep Blue”, Mark Bradford’s 50-foot work documenting the destruction in <a href="https://image-sherpa.com/s/?q=Los+Angeles" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a> during the 1965 Watts Riots. The scale and intricacy of his work coupled with the simplicity of materials — colored paper, old posters, tape, paint, old newspapers, and magazines — speaks to the necessity of the artist to create, with whatever is available. Bradford’s skill and vision bring all of these seemingly benign materials together to create intricate visual essays that speak to society, culture, politics, race, and gender in lyrical beauty. His work orders a chaotic, turbulent world, like a conductor of a visual orchestra, where the musicians and instruments are color, texture, and paper. It is a symphony for the eyes. Deep Blue spans an entire wall at the Broad in downtown <a href="https://image-sherpa.com/s/?q=Los+Angeles" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>. At 50ft long it dwarfs the observer, allowing them to experience the piece from within its oceanic blues and coral-like structures created from painter’s tape and old paper. Tranquil blues are juxtaposed with fiery red-orange nodules and disks, symbolic of the fires that erupted in Watts during the riots while deep cuts and dark lines represent the turbulence and chaotic nature of the time. Bradford uses curvilinear and organic forms that are sculpted into the work, some of which exist below the surface, like the grid-like structures carved into yellow paper covered with dark paint. While other structures exist above the surface, like the knobs of wadded paper and tape that protrude one to two inches, some representing hot spots and others a sense of calm. <a href="https://medium.com/art-direct/diving-into-mark-bradfords-deep-blue-bf908feed331">Learn More</a>