Bradley, Joe
Joe Bradley ‘Vanguard’ 2018. This is a work by Bradley that I like a lot. The colors and iconic shapes are killing it here.
I’m trying to understand the recent wave of abstract expressionism better. This is a movement that at its core hasn’t changed very much since Pollock dripped his way into American culture in the 1940s. Arguably, the artwork has improved, I’d rather live with a piece like Bradley’s work above than a Pollock. But other than a refining design sense, how has this movement evolved from Pollock and Frankenthaler to artists like Bradley today?
What I appreciate about Bradley’s most recent work is that they often feel like they have been lived with. I can see close study in a couple of the works. Signs of an artist living with a painting and making adjustments over time until it resolves into its final form.
Joe Bradley wasn’t an artist I’d fully followed until recently. He is represented by Zwirner, a top-tier gallery with a large collector base, and Bradley is operating on a significant stage. In one of his interviews, Bradley says “The sitting to painting ratio is appalling” by which he means he spends a lot of time contemplating and being with the work. I can feel it.
I feel like I had a bit of a breakthrough after my 20th or so viewing of his painting ‘Moshka’ (see below). I took time to just look at it for a while. At first glance, I’m seeing primary colors and blobs of paint not representing anything. I think “This is really bad… again”. Its not great aesthetic art (a genre which I feel most good abstract art belongs in).
I shifted my mindset and was able to appreciate what he was doing. T me, this feels like an LSD contemplation. I feel this painting is not about anything other than the foundation of reality itself.
Is Bradley going through each day tripping his brains out? If these works were artifacts of someone painting where part of the process included burning his brain cells, I would have more respect for this art.
After looking at it for a while, I feel a reality that is churning, bursting apart and reforming… a unique space emerges for me. I feel like this is a record of a moment of that primordial churn. (ha, I have to be projecting a lot there).
What I am trying to say is that for this painting and several others, I went from a state of dislike to intense curiosity. I could spend a long time looking at this piece.
Joe Bradley ‘Moksha’ 2021
I personally am not a big fan of Joes earlier work. I feel he has grown and will still grow, so I’m not holding this early work against him. Its just when I look at work he did before that is in my opinion very quick and not terribly advanced… I also am going to be asking harder questions about what he is doing now.
The below video is a pretty cool documentation of how he might work.
Current Opinion:
I have gone from avidly disliking Bradley to being a big fan of his work. I am looking forwards to seeing what he produces next.
I still have doubts as to his practice. His work is so raw and so simple that I question his authenticity 90% of the time. When I take the effort to get beyond this thought, then his work sometimes becomes interesting.
I feel like I need to better understand Joe’s process. He says he spends year(s) working on bodies of work. He also says he spends a ton of time looking. I just don’t fully understand how he gets where he does, why he was doing it, and why that is special.