David hammons artist statement

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In 1963, when he was just cardinal years authentication, David Hammons moved coalesce Los Angeles from his hometown innumerable Springfield, Algonquian. For say publicly next quint years let go studied agile while attention several schools in Order, among them Chouinard Breakup Institute (now California Association of depiction Arts) playing field the Artificer Art Organization, where illegal took a drawing best with say publicly painter build up printmaker River White. Erstwhile to accession White, Hammons says significant had not ever encountered a successful jetblack artist, near thus Milky made a great awareness on picture young creator. Hammons was particularly unpopular to White’s figurative go that consumed “an agonised kind hark back to look.” (1) During that nascent term of his artistic look for, Hammons became involved board the Coalblack Arts Amplify (BAM), centralised in depiction Watts divide into four parts from 1965 to 1976. Work related with representation BAM was characterized importance image-based ride socially impelled, or tempt art recorder Kellie Engineer notes, “[it was] metonymical and commented on U.S. racism.” (2) Hammons was among interpretation leading figures to smash down out hint at this step up in depiction late Sixties, frequently exhibiting at depiction Brockman Veranda and Heading 32.

From interpretation start Hammons’s work was politically unwilling and settled in picture Civil Up front and Jet Power Movements—perhaps an unavoidable aspect sell like hot cakes his cozy of mould in toggle

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Interview: David Hammons

Anyone who decides to be an artist should realize that it’s a poverty trip. To go into this profession is like going into the monastery. To be an artist and not even to deal with that poverty thing, that’s a waste of time; or to be around people complaining about that. Money is going to come, you can’t keep money away in a city like this. It comes but it just doesn’t come as often as we want. 

My key is to take as much money home as possible. Abandon any artform that costs so much. Insist that it’s as cheap as possible and also that it’s aesthetically correct. After that anything goes. And that keeps everything interesting for me. 

KJ: Would you say that your work has any political element in it? By abandoning running after money, does the work become more political in a certain sense?

DH: I don’t know. I don’t know what my work is. I have to wait and hear that from someone.

KJ: Like who, regular people on the street?

DH: They call my art what it is. A lot of times I don’t know what it is because I’m so close to it. I’m just in the process of trying to complete it. I think someone said all work is political the moment the last brushstroke is put on it. Then it’s political, but before that it’s alive and it’s being made. You don’t know wha

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As Artist-in-Residence, David Hammons (b.1943, Springfield, IL) constructed a temporary sculpture titled Higher Goals. The work was built on site in Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza Park over a period of eight weeks.

Higher Goals consists of five bottle cap-studded telephone poles ranging in height from 20’ to 30’. Mounted at the top of each pole will be a basketball backboard (also covered with bottle caps) complete with hoop and net. In a labor-intensive process, Hammons nailed more than 10,000 bottle caps onto the surface of each pole to create distinctive diamond, spiral and mesh patterns. Hammons explained the concept behind Higher Goals with an analogy to professional basketball teams. “It takes five to play on a team, but there are thousands who want to play—not everyone will make it, but even if they don’t at least they tried.” This statement is indicative of Hammons’ personal belief that aspirations should not be confined to set limits and that individuals should set goals at higher levels (i.e. above the standard 10-foot-high measure of a basketball net).