CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/7/2022

‘David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968–1979’ is Back in Stock!

At last, a new shipment of The Drawing Center’s concise paperback on David Hammons’ seminal series—in which he used the body as both a drawing tool and a printing plate—has arrived! Drawing Center Executive Director Laura Hoptman writes, “Hammons’ body print series is an eloquent and consummate first expression of his artistic brilliance and, in many ways, these deeply meaningful works on paper speak for themselves. The body prints contain the techniques, concepts and messages that Hammons would continue to expand upon in an array of mediums over the next half century, but their singularity lies in that they represent a first act of artistic and political bravery. In a decade that was an inflection point for racial tension and racial justice in the United States, Hammons chose to use his own body to depict the quotidian joys and entrenched injustices of living as a Black man in midcentury America. As Hammons explained to the artist Ulysses Jenkins in 1978, ‘By using the body, I’m going to have the truth whether I want it or not.’” Featured image is “Astonishing Grace” (1975).