Purple Magazine
— F/W 2016 issue 26

David Hammons

FIVE DECADES
AT MNUCHIN GALLERY
NEW YORK

Virtually every major contemporary art museum has tried, unsuccessfully, to land a retrospective of David Hammons (b. 1943), possibly the most important African-American artist today. His elusiveness is legendary. As one story goes, when Larry Gagosian offered him a solo show at his new space in Rome, Hammons was amenable on two conditions: firstly, nothing would be for sale and secondly, he needed a $3 million display fee. Not surprisingly, this exhibition never came to fruition. Hammons is like the late Miles Davis — he over-charges because he can. Case in point, all the prices for available works at the Mnuchin Gallery show are net to the artist, with a 10% fee on top so the gallery gets a taste of the action: gangster capitalism and a political statement. As to why Hammons prefers a private setting over a public institution, I think that having control over the curating is non-negotiable: Hammons has changed the installation at least three times since the previews, even after reviews in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Artforum.

text by BILL POWERS
photography by OLIVIER ZAHM

[Table of contents]

F/W 2016 issue 26

Table of contents

purple NEWS

purple BEST of the SEASON

purple INTERVIEW

purple FASHION WOMEN

purple FASHION MEN

purple DOCUMENT

purple BEAUTY

purple ARCHITECTURE

purple TRAVEL

purple PHILO

purple SEX

purple NIGHT

purple STORY

purple VISUAL ESSAY

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