The American artist David Hammons rose to fame in the late 1960s, with his renowned “body prints”. As documented here by Bruce W. Talamon, these were made by covering his body (and occasionally others) in grease and pressing it against paper, thereafter dusting the markings with a black pigment. The result is profoundly poetic: “X-ray-like figures… punctuated with exacting details of skin, hair, clothes, and body parts” (MoMA). Hammons often added drawn or collaged elements to the prints, most of which served to highlight racial oppression. His most famous print, Injustice Case, for instance, shows a seated Black man, gagged and bound, referring to the 1968 arrest and maltreatment of the Black Panther activist Bobby Seale.
