Mark Bradford, Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank

Book excerpt: Mark Bradford (born 1961) uses materials found in the urban environment such as billboard sheets, posters and newspapers to create expansive, multi-layered paintings comprised entirely of paper. Focused on Bradford's recent body of work inspired by the interstate road network, this new monograph takes its title from a chapter in the memoirs of President Dwight D. Eisenhower about his experience as a member of the Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919, which informed his support for a nationwide highway system in the US in the 1950s. Topographical points of reference shift in and out of focus in Bradford's abstract compositions, characterized by ruptures, fractures and incisions that echo the social disruption that followed when interstate highways ripped through communities like Bradford's own in south central Los Angeles. Designed in collaboration with the artist, this volume includes an interview with Susan May and a new essay by Christopher Bedford.