David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968-1979

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This book is the first dedicated to David Hammons' early works on paper, specifically his monoprints and collages created between 1968 and 1979. In these pieces, Hammons utilized his body as a drawing tool and printing plate, exploring unconventional image-making techniques. He would grease his body or that of another person with substances like margarine and baby oil, pressing or rolling body parts onto paper, and adding charcoal and powdered pigment. The resulting impressions serve as intimate indexes of faces, skin, and hair, existing between spectral portraits and physical traces. These body prints mark the origin of Hammons' artistic language, which has evolved over his long career, emphasizing the artifacts and subjects of contemporary Black life in the United States. More than fifty years later, these works celebrate the sacredness of objects touched by the Black body while critiquing racial oppression. The highlighted body prints introduce major themes from Hammons' 50-year career, integral to postwar American art history. The book also features a conversation between curator Linda Goode Bryant and artist Senga Nengudi, alongside a photo essay by Bruce W. Talamon, who documented Hammons in his Los Angeles studio in 1974.