Jheri Now, Curl Later
Mark Bradford
Contemporary Art
This early work by Mark Bradford references the artist’s upbringing around his mother’s beauty shop in south Los Angeles and his own background as a professional hairdresser. The title riffs on the Jheri curl—a popular Black hairstyle in the 1980s and 1990s—and reads like a piece of banter or an inside joke tossed around the tight-knit community of a Black hair salon. Bradford collaged and scorched end papers (thin rectangular sheets used to protect a client’s hair during a perm) to create this multilayered and immersive abstraction. The use of a material with deeply personal ties expands the artist’s visual play of shapes, colors, opacities, and text to include conversations around gender and race.
MEDIUM
Mixed media on canvas
DATES
2001
DIMENSIONS
72 x 84 in. (182.9 x 213.4 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2001.85
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Contemporary Art Council and purchased with funds given by Dr. and Mrs. Philip J. Kozinn
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Mark Bradford (American, born 1961). Jheri Now, Curl Later, 2001. Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 84 in. (182.9 x 213.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Council and purchased with funds given by Dr. and Mrs. Philip J. Kozinn, 2001.85. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2001.85_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2001.85_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Mark Bradford
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