Curator Laura Hoptman Reflects on Meeting David Hammons and Organizing Her New Show, the First Museum Exhibition Dedicated to His Body Prints

  IN THE LATE 1960s, David Hammons developed an inventive method for creating monoprints, using grease, pigment, and his own body to make the impressions. He was living and working in Los Angeles at the time. Over the span of a decade, Hammons produced a spectrum of body prints, combining the process with silkscreening and collage, introducing vivid color, and invoking the symbolism of the American flag. Evincing x-ray images, the works are at once figurative, abstract, conceptual, and performative.   DAVID HAMMONS, “Untitled (Man with Flag),” n.d. (grease, pigment, and white crayon on paper, 29 3/4 x 39 3/4 inches / 75.6 x 101 cm). | Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland. Photo by Alex Jamison, Courtesy of Mnuchin Gallery, New York   The Drawing Center in New York recently opened a new show featuring 32 body prints. “David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968–1979” is the first museum exhibition dedicated to the artist’s early, pivotal works. Photographs by Los Angeles-based Bruce Talamon are also on view. Beginning in 1974, Talamon visually documented Hammons in his studio making body prints. Curated by Laura Hoptman, executive director of The Drawing Center, the show gathers a broad range of works from public and private collections. […]