A striking example of one of David Hammons' most influential series and first mature body of work, Body Print epitomizes the incisive, conceptual tenants of the artist's career-long examination of symbols of Black identity. In the present work, the visceral physicality of the figure is remarkably evocative, set against the hues of brown, green and fuchsia. Hammons presses his signature beard tightly against the paper, examining racially charged stereotypes and definitions of Blackness through cultural symbols. Employing a radically experimental form of artistic production, Hammons explores the political coding of Black bodies in 1960s America, as the artist describes, "By using the body, I'm going to have the truth whether I want it or not" (David Hammons in King David 1978 (video)) Negotiating the balance between performance and Self-representations, figuration and abstraction, the Body Prints series marked the genesis of Hammons international success and critical acclaim. In 2021, the first museum exhibition dedicated to the artist's pivotal early works David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979 was shown at The Drawing Center.
In the 1960s, Hammons began studying under Charles White at the Otis Art Institute, from which he gained a deep respect for White's approach to art making. Although he did not follow in Charles White's Social Realist footsteps, Hammons employed the tenants of hand-drawn realism in his work. Hammons began his artistic career in Los Angeles, where he drew inspiration from the imagery of the Black Rights movement, Dada assemblages and the quotidian materials of Art Povera. In the late 1960s, Hammons began his most iconic and recognizable series by imprinting his own greased body to the paper. Hammons was inspired by Yves Klein's blue 'Anthropometries', yet unlike Klein, he used grease instead of paint, coating his skin and hair with margarine and applied his body to the paper, he then covered those sections with pigmented powder. The blurred haze of pigment produced soft, intimate, X-Ray like images. The experimental medium creates startlingly intricate figurative impressions that somet.mes s appear trapped, somet.mes s sensual. In the present work, after applying brown, green, and purple powdered pigment in the three areas, Hammons splayed the edges with his fingers. He pressed his lips and moustache onto the center of the paper, as well as the sides of his hands and fingers. Following this process, he added eyes and dots with his fingers and fingertips, creating a dynamic image of his visage in a process that nods to the t.mes less aesthetic tradition of mask-making.
"By using the body, I'm going to have the truth whether I want it or not."
Although later works in the Body Prints series include flags, collages and figures other than the artist, in the present work, the composition is vividly reduced to the artist's face, framed by his palms. David Hammons uses the body as an icon and tool for artistic production, exploring representation and symbols through the ephemeral quality of the imprint. The life-size scale further entices the viewer to question the body's representation, leaving behind a ghostly yet chromatic imprint of Hammons face which, in its trace, alludes to the tensions between visibility and invisibility within the complex experience of racialized embodiment. Hammons clutches his face in the present work, his lips preset against the paper, his eyes adorned with white dots spiraling from either side. The gestural mark-making of Hammons' fingers smudging out the vibrant colors evokes a raw and frenetic urgency. With deliberation and self-possession, Hammons presses his face against the paper, making it appear as if his figure extends beyond the surface of the drawing in a range of pigmented hues. Hammons' Body Prints serve as an enduring homage to Black culture, illustrating an adoration for Black bodies as the artist admires the self in its most reduced form with his own body as the medium. (Untitled) Body Print is an exceptional example from this renowned series, other editions of which reside in major collects ions, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
