PRIMITIVE PAINTING

Joe Bradley, Lotus Beaters (Installation View), courtesy of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

JOE BRADLEY: LOTUS BEATERS
GAVIN BROWN ENTERPRISES

A month ago Joe Bradley had a mostly abstract show at the Gavin Brown Enterprises Gallery.  His body of work is mostly known for being unlike any of his previous work-- Lego robot paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphics, cave paintings, and now abstract blobs on stitched together canvases that are complete with footprints and other studio debris.  Additionally, a wall of crude line drawings that taken together feel like looking at visual jazz.  

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

1. What do you think the artist was trying to portray with these drawings?
2. How do these drawings make you feel?
3. How many of these drawings can you call "figurative"?
4. The artist uses a technique to make these crude-- he is not untrained.  Yet, he captures a childlike spirit of an untrained artist.  Talk about that dynamic.

LINKS TO DIG DEEPER:

*An interview between Interview Magazine and Joe Bradley

*Gavin Brown Enterprise 

EXTENSION:

The original crude art was found in paleolithic caves.  Most of these examples featured animals and hunting.  They painted about the world around them and what was most important to their everyday lives.  Cave artists used twigs and berries to paint these primitive explorations on the walls.  Work with your children to make their own cave drawings.  What topic is most important to your child?  Encourage them to choose subjects that are important to them and can be used to communicate something to the viewer.  Ann Arbor Art Center has some ideas about materials to use to emulate an actual cave drawing.  But as Joe Bradley shows us, it's not necessary to be on a cave to have the full impact of a crude sketch.