(born 1940)

Ruling Light, signed verso canvas "Peter Bradley/1973" and titled, acrylic on canvas, 39-3/4 x 86-7/8 in.; lattice style frame, 40-3/4 x 87-1/2 in.

Provenance: Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York (label verso)

Note: "I know André‚ Emmerich had no interest in showing me as a black artist. He was only concerned in showing me as a very gifted artist."

Peter Bradley was well positioned as abstract expressionism hit a new American zenith in New York City in the 1960s and 70s. A subset movement would be labeled as "color field" by his friend and art critic, Clement Greenberg. It was the style he embraced as an artist. To me abstract painting is all about color. The main thing about making art and music is color. Color represents itself boldly and there's all kinds of color in nature, he stated. Bradley had been encouraged in his art by his mother. He studied at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit and Yale University in New Haven before he moved to New York and found a place to live with the help of his friend and fellow artist, William Williams.

Bradley was working at Perls Gallery on 1016 Madison Avenue as an installer when he casually sold an expensive painting to heiress, Mary Frances Rand. As a result, he was offered the job as associate director of the gallery which lasted from 1968-1975. It was through his connections there that he established friendships with fellow artists Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, John de Menil, and founding director of the Menil Foundation, Simone Swan (donated painting Pink Elephant to the Met).

Bradley was a first rate gallerist, travelling all over the world selling Picasso, Calder, Braque, Soutine, and many other modern masters. He caught the attention of John de Menil who asked him to direct and curate the earliest integrated art show staged in the United States. The De Luxe Show opened in 1971, in Houston, Texas with great acclaim. According to Bradley, he "looked for anyone who was painting and making good, hard abstraction. When I say the word "hard," I mean artists who were making abstract art and who had suffered to make it; living in poverty and so forth black and white artists alike."

At around the same time, André‚ Emmerich offered him his first show in 1972. Six shows would follow. Bradley gained recognition for both his paintings and his sculptures. He continues to paint at his home in Saugerties, New York. His work is held in the permanent collections of museums across the United States, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, African American Museum in Dallas, The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, and the Johannesburg Art Foundation in South Africa.

References: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/peter-bradley-1/