David Hammons: Day's End

An in-depth look at a public art project by David Hammons with an overview of the enigmatic artist's career.

Published to commemorate David Hammons's (b. 1943) public art project Day's End, located in New York City, this book documents the sculpture and offers broader context into Hammons's enigmatic work. In 2014, Hammons sent the Whitney Museum of American Art a sketch for a monument to Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), paying homage to Matta-Clark's legendary Day's End (1975)--an industrial, cathedral-like space of altered architecture--once located near today's Whitney in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. Completed in 2021, Hammons's work, also titled Day's End, was realized by the Whitney in collaboration with Hudson River Park, and is on permanent view. One of the most important artists working in the United States, Hammons makes art across mediums, often outside traditional venues. In addition to photographic documentation, the book includes essays on the origins of Day's End, Hammons's career scope, and a contribution by poet Ben Okri.

Adam D. Weinberg is Alice Pratt Brown Director at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 

Kellie E. Jones is Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art at Columbia University, New York. 

Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer and professor of architecture and structural engineering at Princeton University.