DAVID HAMMONS: BODY PRINTS, 1968-1979 by Laura Hoptman

Title: David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979
Author(s)/Editor(s): Laura Hoptman
Publisher: The Drawing Center
Pages: 144
Dimensions: 153 x 228 mm
Format: Softcover
Year: 2021

Now internationally renowned for his three-dimensional assemblages, performances, and large-scale installations, David Hammons (b. 1943) began his career with a series of monoprints created with impressions of his own body combined with silkscreens and collaged found objects.

David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968–1979 is the first publication to focus exclusively on these pivotal early works on paper in which the artist used the body as both a drawing tool and printing plate to explore performative, unconventional forms of image making. Together, the body prints highlighted in this volume introduce the major themes of a fifty-year career that has become central to the history of postwar American art.

This edition features a conversation between curator and activist Linda Goode Bryant and artist Senga Nengudi, as well as a photo essay by photographer Bruce W. Talamon, who documented David Hammons at work in his Los Angeles studio in 1974. The publication is expanded from its first edition to include reproductions of a selection of rarely-seen body prints that Hammons added from his personal collection to the exhibition during its final weeks. The publication also features a revised introduction by Laura Hoptman to mark the unique expansion of the exhibition.