Modern Painters | April 2007
David Hammons
L&M Arts
No title, no press release, and, as of press time, no pictures: these were the stipulations issued by David Hammons on the occasion of his recent solo show in New York. It featured only one piece, which consisted of six fur coats hanging on antique dress forms in two rooms of the Upper East Side brownstone that houses L&M Arts. In such an imposing and privileged setting (a doorman shadowed viewers as they walked through the space), the coats alone had strong visual impact. So one was little prepared for the fact that the backs of the exquisitely tailored pelts were covered with paint. The white fox coat was sprayed blue, red, and green; a black sable had a thick splotch of yellow paint on its rear; the large, intimidating wolf was splattered pink. On the second floor, a spotlight shone down on a lone silver chinchilla fur. The back of this coat was charred, some parts down to the lining, and there was a faint smell of burned hair. There was something savage about the way the coats were mutilated, and, without the usual curatorial handholding, one was left to determine whether Hammons’s work was a commentary on painting, a scathing critique of the artworld’s exclusionary tactics, or a spectacularly effective PETA intervention.
—Claire Barliant