DAVID HAMMONS: L&M ARTS CATALOGUE

L&M Arts, 2011, First edition, Unpaginated, 6 3/4" X 8 3/4", Hardcover

Fine (still in publishers shrink wrap)

A scarce catalogue featuring twelve works. Ten of these are large, brushy abstractions in hot, de Kooning–esque turquoises, salmons, and lilacs—or in cool, Warholian metallics. Each is almost totally obstructed by drapery; flung over the canvases in swags or stuck in wrinkles to their surfaces are huge, scuffed sheets of used-to-be-clear plastic, a frayed tarp, torn garbage bags, a raggy towel, etc. One silver-green-black abstraction (think knock-off Richter) is encumbered with pieces of gray garbage bag and pleated green silk. A turquoise-silver-orange number is mostly blocked from view by a wooden armoire, its mirrored front pressed to the painting’s face, its unvarnished backside toward viewers. The last two “paintings” consist of layered sheets of ripped plastic, one translucent white on opaque black, the other a double ply of clear. An irregularly cut length of transparent plastic clouded by prior use (not a “work”—at least, not included on the checklist) was hung in a doorway like a heraldic banner, or the remnant of a shantytown.

Uncommon