David Hammons Walkthrough

I did not see David Hammons’ sprawling 2019 exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles in person, and I only flipped through the catalogue/artist book when it came out last year. But I had to move it recently from its loadbearing position at the bottom of its stack, and give it the full attention it demands. Honestly, it’s a stunning retrospective feast I’m not sure any of us actually deserve. Along with Michael Crichton’s 1977 Jasper Johns catalogue and the Smithsonian’s Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Always To Return), it’s now only the third exhibition catalogue I’ve read straight through, cover-to-cover. And there aren’t even any words.

a page from a david hammons exhibition catalogue has a photo of a gnarly black woven plastic tarp tucked and swagged, presumably, over an abstract paintng, and on the white wall next to it is written in pencil, all caps, how many of these did you make? an installation view from hauser and wirth los angeles 2019
“How many of these did you make?” A wall text next to a David Hammons abstract painting covered by a street tarp at Hauser & Wirth in 2019, as published in the book at the exact moment I wondered.

Well, that’s not entirely true. The H&W installation photos that fill most of the second half of the 404-page book pick up the handwritten labels and instructions that punctuated the show.

a skeewampus photo of a spread in a david hammons catalogue with an angled photo of an open book bound in black leather on a white pedestal. the book is open to the last page, where the label for the holy bible old testament and the 2002 edition information is affixed, and david hammons's signature is at the bottom. below that, written on the pedestal in pencil in all caps, is the instruction, yes you can turn the page. an installation view from hauser and wirth los angeles 2019
“Yes you may turn the page” of the artist’s proof of The Holy Bible: Old Testament, Hammons’s epic 2002 artist book that rebound the Duchamp catalogue raisonné to look like scripture

And when I hit this spread about 80% of the way through, I felt like the book was literally reading my mind, or, less supernaturally, that I was being taken through the show—and decades of work—by the artist himself.

Not that I’d expect Hammons to just say how many abstract paintings he’s covered with how many street tarps. And when I went back through to count, I had to decide whether to include paintings with metal panels affixed. And what about other things draped or covered with tarps or metal plates? And what about the Kool-aid paintings, where the covers feel less found? Anyway, I’d say there were at least thirty in the book, but it also sinks in that they’re in almost every installation shot, somewhere.

As for The Holy Bible: Old Testament, I’d wondered, since the times I’ve seen it exhibited it was on a lectern or a prie dieu and practically commanded personal devotion. But in LA it was naked on a pedestal.

Anyway, at this point, if you hear someone calling Hammons elusive or mysterious, it just means they haven’t put in the time to look at the bounty the artist has laid before us.

Previously, directly related [apparently I have been blogging about this show for seven years]:
Free as in Jazz and Books, TK Smith’s May 2025 review of the catalogue
Critiquing modernism and capitalism, one Hauser & Wirth show at a time
DH H&W LA: the oral history
David Hammons Lights
&c., &c.