DAVID HAMMONS

Over the past forty years, David Hammons has produced sculptures, installations, prints, drawings, paintings, performances, and videos that, with a sense of the sacred and the humorous, investigate the intersection of art and daily life. Hammons' ‘Holy Bible: Old Testament’, on view from the Collection of Craig Robins, is a limited-edition artist's book that consists of a 1997 softcover edition of ‘The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp’, by Arturo Schwartz, that has been rebound to resemble a Bible. As the originator of the "readymade"—a work of art made from an unaltered found object placed in an art context—Marcel Duchamp, perhaps more than any other artist, influenced the course of artmaking over the past one hundred years. Hammons questions or highlights the artist’s work as sacred object, he reveals the tension between creating and channeling by binding a book of Duchamp’s works as if it were the Old Testament, leaving open the possibility that art practice might lead to revelations or spiritual enlightenment.

From landmark actions like his ‘Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983)’, in which Hammons sold snowballs of different sizes on a New York City sidewalk, to his most recent paintings whose surfaces are obscured by tarpaulins, burlap, or old furniture, such as Untitled, his work has contributed to an ongoing discussion about the role of the artist and the value of art in a world beyond the pampered precincts of the museum or gallery.