Cathy's Art Diary

Striking exhibition at Hauser & Wirth of new work by Mark Bradford. The commentary said this show is “dedicated to places difficult and in-between, where conflicts arise, but also where the hope of resolution if to be found.” I didn’t get any of that from the pictures themselves but I did like them and found they drew you in being striking at a distance but being intriguingly layered close up. I thought they worked best in the smaller of the two galleries where I did stop and sit to look at them for a while. Although they were busy abstract images they were calming to look at made you take time to pause and look more carefully. My favourite was “Frostbite” with splashes of bright turquoise paint and swathes of yellow. Closes 21 December 2019

Exhibition at White Cube, Bermondsey, of new work by Mark Bradford. I loved these paintings which my brain sought to work out and decide they were maps or landscapes and I tried to read the words under the surface and make sense of them. A friend I was with just saw them as nice patterns and shapes which showed they can be viewed in different ways. I loved the work in the room 9x9x9 called “Calls from your cell phone” which consisted of 150 black and white panels with bits of the words of a poster on them. The effect was of being in a mausoleum surrounded by tombs.