Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment

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Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment

 

Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Detroit Institute of Arts 

 

On-screen text: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

 

Video: Entrance to the hall where the Detroit Industry Murals are located, showing a partial view of the murals

 

On-screen text: Diego Rivera (Mexican 1886 – 1957), Detroit Industry Murals, 1932-33, fresco

 

Video: Inside the hall where the Detroit Industry Murals are painted on the walls. The Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Salvador Salort-Pons stands in the foreground.

 

On-screen text: Salvador Salort-Pons, Director, Detroit Institute of Arts

 

Audio— Salvador Salort-Pons: Hello, I’m Salvador Salort-Pons, I am the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today, I would like to talk about one of my favorite works from our collection—

 

Video: A close-up view of a mural section

 

Audio: —the Detroit Industry Murals created by Diego Rivera and tell you why I think it is truly a masterpiece.

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of Detroit Industry Murals followed by archival footage of Diego Rivera painting

 

Audio:  In 1931, DIA director William Valentiner, and Edsel Ford, president of Ford Motor Company, invited the celebrated Mexican artist Diego Rivera to “beautify the Museum and give fame to its hall.” Rivera’s recent retrospective at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in New York created a sensation. The exhibition—and practically the artist’s every move—were followed by the press.

 

Video: Archival footage of a courtyard with scaffolding and a fountain, followed by footage of William Valentiner and Diego Rivera

 

Audio: The hall that Valentiner described was this grand space — at the time, an open-air courtyard with a fountain at the center. The director hoped for murals to line the space, which were bare when he requested Rivera’s talents.

 

Video: Archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals

 

Audio: One of the most famous artists in the world by 1932, Rivera believed that public art — including murals like these — could shape society, politics and national identity. Born in Mexico in 1886, Rivera first studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and then went to Europe, where he absorbed the lessons of Cubism while retaining his deep devotion to his Mexican identity and the Indigenous culture of his homeland. Rivera, along with his compatriots José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros — known together as Los Tres Grandes — pioneered Mexican Muralist Renaissance, which celebrated the cultural history of Mexico along with the communist ideals of its recent Revolution.

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals

 

Audio: Rivera often presented workers as the heroes of his murals, who engage in physically demanding labor with integrity and nobility.

 

Video: Archival footage of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera on scaffolding and Rivera is painting part of a mural

 

Audio: Rivera arrived in Detroit in April 1932 with his wife Frida Kahlo, who was at the beginning of her career.

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals

 

Audio: The initial contract was for $10,000 — equivalent at about $190,000 today. The commission was later doubled. 

 

Video: Archival footage of various industries and workers

 

Audio: The DIA requested that Rivera depict industries that had made Detroit famous.

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals and current footage of the completed murals

 

Audio: Rivera spent eleven months in Detroit. He toured automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical factories; sketching businesses and workers and devising the masterpiece now known as the Detroit Industry Murals. Rivera was a great admirer of innovation in the United States, so the artist used all four walls of this space to both celebrate and question the place of industry in society — its promise and products, its danger and damages. He was fascinated by the factories he toured, but Rivera’s strong political beliefs — specifically, his affiliation with communism — also made him a critic of what he saw as the ills of capitalism. He declared himself “a spy in disguise” who could subvert from the inside with his art.

 

Video: Footage of the murals

 

Audio: Across these two monumental walls — specifically, these lower sections, each 45 feet long — Rivera presented the process of car production at Ford’s vast River Rouge plant in Dearborn. Workers smelting the steel in blast furnaces, building the powerful engines, constructing the gleaming car bodies — all powered by Henry Ford’s transformative assembly line and the diverse, multiracial workforce at River Rouge.

 

Rivera depicts the motorized line, the machinery and the synchronized workers throughout the murals, giving a sense of how enormous and complex the process was. A spectacular sight, the plant has even drawn a crowd in the background of the south wall. Engineers from Dearborn were amazed that Rivera “fused together, in a few feet, sequences of operations which are actually performed in a distance of at least two miles, and every inch of the work— 

 

Video: Archival footage of machinery

 

Audio: —is technically correct.”

 

Video: Footage of the murals

 

Audio: Other scenes here contrast the wonders and dangers of science — from the life-saving development of vaccines to the threat of chemical weapons; the construction of ships and planes that could also serve the military; the managers who surveil their employees, looking for any misstep; the harvesting of rubber that provided the material for tires, but left the landscape empty.

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with footage of the murals

 

Audio: In the top sections of the long walls of the mural, Rivera complemented the scenes of industry with black, white, red and yellow female figures also associated with nature and fertility, consistent with Aztec beliefs that divided the world into four quadrants and four elements.

 

Here the four natural resources that they clutch represent the key materials for producing steel: coal, iron, lime and sand. Other hands rise from the earth bringing forth these resources — a tribute to the bounty of the land that Rivera saw in North and South America. As you exit the court, you see the master engineer overlooking plans and his counterpart, the worker.

 

Throughout the mural, Rivera included many personalities he had encountered during his time in Detroit. Edsel Ford and William Valentiner, the museum’s director, are pictured in the lower right corner of the south wall. Rivera’s own team of painters are portrayed as the workers who work on the assembly line on the north wall.

 

Video: Archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals

 

Audio: The Detroit Industry Murals proved influential in their own time—

 

Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with footage of the murals

 

Audio: —and today, we consider them the Sistine Chapel of America. 

 

I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a moment!

 

Audio: Music playing

 

On-screen text:

 

Title treatment art:

Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)

The Arch, 1919 (detail)

Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)

 

Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)

Detroit Industry murals, 1932–1933

Frescos

© 2020 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

“Take the “A” Train”  
Written by Billy Strayhorn 
Performed by Oscar Peterson 
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.

Graphic: Bank of America logo

Graphic: Bank of America logo

 

Audio: Jazz music playing

 

Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment

 

Video: The exterior of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s former building followed by an architectural rendering of the Museum’s future building 

 

On-screen text: The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams (American, b. 1942), Trane, 1969, Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 84 inches

 

Video: Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

On-screen text: Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem

 

Audio— Thelma Golden: Hello, I’m Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. The Studio Museum is located on 125th Street in the heart of Harlem, New York.

 

Video: Architectural rendering of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s future building

 

Audio: The Museum is currently in construction on a new building that will rise on the footprint of our former home. 

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today I would like to talk to you about one of my favorite works from our collection, Trane by William T. Williams, and tell you why I think it is truly a masterpiece.

 

Audio: Music plays off and on throughout

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969 followed by an archival photograph of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s former building exterior with a small group of people in front

 

Audio: This monumental, acrylic-on-canvas painting stands at approximately 9 x 6 1/2 feet, and was created in 1969, just one year after The Studio Museum opened to the public.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: It was gifted to the Museum in 1981 by Charles Cowles, a noted collector, art dealer, and publisher. Mr. Cowles’ gift also included an additional four works on paper by Williams, as well as works by Sam Gilliam and Benny Andrews. 

 

Video: The Sam Gilliam artwork Mars I, 1974

 

On-screen text: Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933), Mars I, 1974 , Acrylic on rice paper, The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.1

 

Video: The Benny Andrews artwork The Police, 1972

 

On-screen text: Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006), The Police, 1972, Pen and ink on paper, two-sided drawing, The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.7

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: Williams, Gilliam, and Andrews were integral to the founding of the Museum and continue to be a part of its legacy and programming today.

 

Video: Archival photograph of William T. Williams in his studio followed by close-ups of his painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: William T. Williams was born in 1942 in Cross Creek, North Carolina. As a teenager, he moved with his family to New York City where his artistic talent was recognized and encouraged by the head of a local community center who offered him a small studio space. Williams attended what is now called the High School of Art and Design and went on to receive a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1966. He went on to complete an MFA at the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1968.

 

Video: Archival photographs of William T. Williams

 

Audio: After completing his studies, Williams returned to New York City. He began his formal career in New York at a time when new American art movements were flourishing, including color field painting, Pop art, and minimalism. Williams quickly gained attention and success.

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969.

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969, Acrylic and metallic paint on canvas

 

Audio: The Museum of Modern Art, New York purchased his painting Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II in 1969.

 

Video: Archival photograph of William T. Williams

 

Audio: Williams is well versed in the history of art and abstraction, and his work both acknowledges and challenges that of his predecessors.

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Harlem Angels, 1968

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Harlem Angels, 1968, Acrylic on canvas

 

Audio: It is characterized by bold compositions and use of color, and the shapes and geometries Williams associates with childhood memories.

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Mercer’s Stop, 1971

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Mercer’s Stop, 1971, Acrylic on canvas

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Palm Cafe, 1970

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Palm Cafe, 1970, Acrylic on paper

 

Audio: His practice draws on the rich history of abstraction in all forms of African-American culture, in particular, from the unique forms of abstraction in music, especially in jazz, as well as the geometric patterns of the quilts he saw in the South.

 

Video: Archival photographs of William T. Williams in his studio

 

Audio: Williams takes a rigorous, formal approach to painting, creating his paintings in series and producing meticulous prints, drawings and watercolors alongside them to explore color and brushwork.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: Throughout his career, Williams has been at the forefront of his medium, pushing and pulling the material and conceptual capacity of paint to evoke the world around him.

 

Video: The photograph John & Alice Coltrane, 1966 by Chuck Stewart shown next to the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: The title of this painting, Trane, references John Coltrane, one of the greatest jazz saxophonists and composers and an icon of American culture.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Video: An archival photograph of an installation of the series Diamond in a Box by William T. Williams.

 

Audio: Painted early in Williams’ career, Trane belongs to his first mature series, known as the Diamond in a Box paintings.

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: This work features a central diamond within a rectangular canvas—a compositional motif the artist has referred to as a “stabilizing force”—referencing the challenging social and political context in which this work was made. Vibrant bands of discordant colors radiate from and intersect with the center. The forms repeat and multiply, and when viewed in series, the lines and shapes create a visual rhythm akin to a jazz composition.

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71, Acrylic on canvas

 

Video: The William T. Williams painting Truckin, 1969

 

On-screen text: William T. Williams, Truckin, 1969, Acrylic on canvas

 

Audio: The influence of jazz is apparent in Williams’ work, not only for its compositional structure, but also as a medium emblematic of the experimental and expressive innovations of African-American culture.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: Williams has an expansive understanding of, and a commitment to, art and community. He was active in the tumultuous 1960s, a decade that defined civil rights activism in the United States.

 

Video: An archival photograph of storefronts next to the former exterior of The Studio Museum in Harlem

 

Audio: Williams was deeply connected to both the Studio Museum and Harlem during this period.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969

 

Audio: He developed two proposals as a graduate student at Yale that were intended to bridge the divide between artists and the communities they lived and worked in. The first formed the basis for the Studio Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, for which Williams was instrumental in the early years of, and remains a core part of the Museum’s mission to this day.

 

Video: A photograph of four men, including William T. Williams, standing in front of a mural

 

Audio: The second proposal became the muralist collective Smokehouse Associates, which brought public art to Harlem between 1968 and 1970.

 

Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969 interspersed with close-ups of the painting

 

Audio: In a career spanning over fifty years, Williams has shown his work in over 100 museums and galleries worldwide. He has remained true to a core set of guiding principles that have allowed him to experiment and evolve his practice, consistently challenging the limits of abstraction and its capacity to speak to the world around us. 

 

Trane exemplifies Williams’ groundbreaking approach to color, form, and subject, capturing the social upheaval of a nation not through explicit figuration but through complex, rigorous abstraction. A masterpiece that bridges the personal and the political, Trane exemplifies the artist’s storied career and his continued practice of radically reshaping the field of abstraction.

 

I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about Trane by William T. Williams. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you will never miss a moment! 

 

Graphic: Bank of America logo

 

Audio: Jazz music playing

 

On-screen text:

 

Title treatment art:

Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)

The Arch, 1919 (detail)

Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Trane, 1969

Acrylic on canvas

108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.2

© William T. Williams

 

William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, c. 1968–69

© Irene Stern; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, c.1968-69

© Irene Stern; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, 1987

© Peter Bellamy; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933)

Mars I, 1974 

Acrylic on rice paper

21” × 25 1/2” × 5/8” (53.34 x 64.77 x 1.58 cm)

The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.1 

© 2021 Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006)

The Police, 1972 

Pen and ink on paper, two-sided drawing

18” × 12” (45.72 x 30.48 cm)

The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.7 

© 2021 Estate of Benny Andrews / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969

Acrylic and metallic paint on canvas

93 1/4” x 109 7/8” (292.7 x 279.1 cm)

Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Carter Burden, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Jakobson and purchase (1009.1969)

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams with a painting from his Shimmer Series, 1983

© Fern Logan; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Harlem Angels, 1968

Acrylic on canvas

121” x 40 1/2” (307.3 x 102.9 cm) 

Signed

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Mercer’s Stop, 1971

Acrylic on canvas

108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm) 

Signed

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Palm Cafe, 1970

Acrylic on paper

55 1/2” x 44 1/2” (141 x 113 cm)

49” x 38 1/2” (124.5 x 97.8 cm) sight size

Signed

Inscribed lower center in margin: Studio Museum (Trane) Work Drawing One of Two

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams in his Connecticut studio, July 18, 2020

Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams in his Connecticut studio, 2018

Photographer Grant Delin; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

Chuck Stewart (American, 1927–2017)

John & Alice Coltrane, 1966

Gelatin silver print

Bank of America Collection

© 2021 Copyrighted and registered photographs by Chuck Stewart Photography, LLC / All rights reserved.

 

Installation view of William T. Williams’ groundbreaking first solo exhibition at Reese Palley Gallery in New York City, on view March 6–30, 1971. The exhibition consisted of large geometric abstractions from the artist’s first mature series, Diamond in a Box.

Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71

Acrylic on canvas

108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm) 

Signed

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)

Truckin, 1969

Acrylic on canvas

84 1/2” x 60 1/2” (214.6 × 153.7 cm)

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (2014.130.2)

© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

Smokehouse Associates founders Melvin Edwards, Billy Rose, Guy Ciarcia and William T. Williams

Photographer Robert Colton, New York, NY; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

 

“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn 
Performed by Oscar Peterson 
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

 

© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.

Graphic: Bank of America logo

 

 

Audio: Jazz music playing

 

 

Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment

 

 

Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

 

On-screen text: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

 

Video: The Mark Bradford artwork 150 Portrait Tone, 2017

 

 

On-screen text: Mark Bradford (American, b.1961), 150 Portrait Tone, 2017, mixed media on canvas

 

 

Video: Michael Govan standing in front of the artwork Mark Bradford, 150 Portrait Tone, 2017

 

 

Audio: Music plays off and on throughout

 

 

On-screen text: Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, LACMA

 

 

Audio—Michael Govan:

 

Hi. I'm Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Welcome to Bank of America's Masterpiece Moment.

 

Today, I'd like to talk about a contemporary masterpiece from our collection—with a timely message—an artwork titled 150 Portrait Tone by Mark Bradford.

 

This monumental, mixed media on canvas work was specially created for LACMA in 2017 and it stands 20 by 25½ feet in our Resnick Pavilion.

 

The idea for this commission came after I visited Mark's studio and viewed his large-scale studies for a series of paintings he was making for the U.S. Embassy in London. As we discussed exhibiting the Embassy studies at LACMA, we also talked about the possibility of a new artwork.

 

Later, Mark threw out the idea that resulted in this mural size painting. At first, he proposed to make the painting directly on the wall but working inside the museum, at our entrance, proved too logistically challenging.

 

Mark's technique involves paper, glue, paint, cutting, sanding and jet blasting with water. Instead, the painting was made in three large sections in Mark's studio and then stretched and installed here by LACMA's skilled team of art preparators.

 

Mark Bradford is a quintessential born and raised Los Angeles artist. Throughout his early life, his mother ran a hair salon. And upon graduating from high school, Mark received his hairstylist license and worked on and off at his mother's salon. It wasn't until he was in his 30s that he attended and graduated California Institute of the Arts, also known as CalArts, with an undergraduate and then a master's degree in 1997.

 

His work spans painting, sculpture, film, and multimedia installations. The many subjects of Mark's art include communities, migrant populations, history, race, gender, and popular culture.

 

In addition to being an artist, he also operates his own public art exhibition space and an adjacent program to support foster youth in his native South Los Angeles neighborhood, which he’s helping to preserve.

 

Mark believes deeply in the power of art to inspire and shape lives. And he's received too many honors to count, including the MacArthur Genius Award and the U.S. State Medal of the Arts, as well as representing our nation at the International 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. His art has been shown around the world.

 

150 Portrait Tone is based on the July 2016 murder of Philando Castile by a police officer in St. Paul, Minnesota. Castile was driving, and when pulled over for a broken taillight, he was fatally shot.

 

Part of the incident was live streamed by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was sitting next to him, horrified, with her four-year-old daughter in the back seat.

 

The title of the painting, 150 Portrait Tone, refers to the name of the pink acrylic "skin tone" color that's used throughout the painting, but also makes a commentary on the vestiges of racism and racist labels that persist all around and are deeply etched into our culture. The tone of a human portrait isn't only pink. Years ago, Crayola removed the name "flesh" from their peach-hued crayon, recognizing our diversity.

 

Like many of Mark's works, this mural-size composition contains both abstraction and graphic symbolism. This new painting feels old in some ways, with layers of manipulated paper and paint rendering this text almost illegible in places.

 

For me, the dark form in the background evokes the horrific shooting, perhaps Castile's twisted arm and the dark-red bloodstain spread across his white shirt, both prominent in the live stream feed.

 

Much of Reynolds's voiceover dialogue is inscribed over the entire surface of the painting. The artist was moved by the power of her words and the different audiences Reynolds addressed simultaneously. 

 

"Stay with me," she says to her boyfriend, but I think the artist is also using that phrase at the top left of the painting to talk to us, and to ask us to pay attention.

 

Reynolds addresses the officer: "Please, officer, don't tell me that you just did this." She addresses the Lord: "Lord, please, Jesus, don't tell me that he's gone." 

 

And she addresses us, the unknown audience, on the other side of her live stream: "Please don't tell me he just went like that."

 

This far-reaching artistic statement reminds me of another of my favorite works of art.

 

Video: The painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso

 

Audio: Pablo Picasso's Guernica, painted in 1937 to protest the bombing of Guernica and the loss of so many innocent lives. 

 

Video: The painting The Third of May by Francisco Goya

 

Audio: Or Francisco Goya's 19th-century masterpiece, The Third of May, documenting the massacre of Spanish freedom fighters.

 

Video: Michael Govan standing in front of Mark Bradford’s 150 Portrait Tone, 2017

 

Audio: Mark Bradford is similarly crying out about the widespread injustice of so much police brutality against Black Americans. This work fits into an extraordinary tradition of art calling for justice.

 

I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about 150 Portrait Tone by Mark Bradford. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a moment. 

 

 

Graphic: Bank of America logo

 

 

On-screen text:

 

Title treatment art:

Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)

The Arch, 1919 (detail)

Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg) 

 

Chris Burden (American, 1946 – 2015)

Urban Light, 2008

Sculpture

Two-hundred and two restored cast iron antique street lamps 

© 2020 Chris Burden / licensed by The Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Robert Irwin (American, b. 1928)

Miracle Mile, 2013

Installation Art

Lightwork 

© 2020 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Vera Lutter (German, b. 1960)

Installation images from Vera Lutter: Museum in the Camera

LACMA

Images: © 2020 Vera Lutter / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

 

Mark Bradford (American, b. 1961)

150 Portrait Tone, 2017 (detail)

Mixed media on canvas

240” x 310” (609.6 x 787.4 cm) 

© 2020 Mark Bradford

Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Photo: Joshua White

 

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Spanish, 1881 – 1973)

Guernica, 1937

Oil on canvas

© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

 

Additional Camera: Isiah Donté Lee

Additional footage courtesy the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

 

© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.