Working with New York Street Artist Bradley Theodore

Late in 2017 acclaimed New York street artist Bradley Theodore spent two days at the Pitt Rivers Museum creating a new painting as a piece of free-to-view performance art which he then donated to the Museum. In my role as Education Officer it was a privilege to spend two days with Bradley, bering inspired and watching him inspire others.

The Artist at Work © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley Theodore © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley is a natural performer, even his trousers beame part of the art.

Bradley's Trousers © Pitt Rivers Museum

The opportunity to work with cutting edge artists like Bradley is one of the things I love most about my job. This short film gives a flavour of the experience. I filmed it on my phone so the footage and sound isn’t the best, but it is short:

Carribean-born Theodore has his roots in street art and has produced murals in Oslo, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Los Angeles. His vibrant artwork frequently features mammoths of the fashion world or historic figures stripped back to skeletal figures and has become instantly recognisable thanks to his distinctive ‘Dia de los muertos style’ (Mexican Day of the Dead); Vogue’s International Editor Suzy Menkes describes his work as ‘Banksy meets Basquiat’. Thanks to a growing number of high-profile collectors and celebrity admirers, Theodore’s renown is on the rise.

Bradley explains his art © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley is a talker, and is passionate about his work. While painting he was happy to chat to the public and school groups. He spent an inspiring half an hour talking to some year 10 artists about how to balance colour and the importance of maths in art. I think it is a school trip they’ll remember for quite a while.

Bradley at work © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley Theodore came to Oxford at the invitation of the Edgar Wind Society to paint and to talk about his life and art. A big thanks to Jemma and Geo for making this happen, and to Mike Peckett for taking much better photos than I did.

The studio © Pitt Rivers Museum

He said that he was going to donate a picture to the museum: he ended up giving us four, all his paintbrushes, and his paint. I have been using the brushes and paint for a community arts project in East Oxford. Thanks Bradley.

The finished Bradley Theodore of the Pitt Rivers
and the Museum of Natural History © Pitt Rivers Museum

The modern artist is never far from some digital inspiration.

Bradley gains some inspiration from his phone
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Andy McLellan
Head of Education
Pitt Rivers Museum

Work Experience Placement at the Museum

Every year the Education team facilitates a certain number of work experience placements to enable young people to find out about work in a museum. Here a local student , Jasmine (15), reports on what she got up to during a week at Pitt Rivers...


"This last week I've been immersed in a different world. I am a GCSE history student, and arranged with the Pitt Rivers Museum to do work experience with them for a week.

"I particularly enjoyed photographing the Education Department's handling collection of textiles and masks. We were creating a database, so that researchers could search for and find objects. There were some fascinating and quirky masks, like these two from Indonesia (below):

Frog mask © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bird Mask © Pitt Rivers Museum

If the experience at the Pitt Rivers taught me anything, it's the power of objects. Looking at an object can tell you tons about the people who made it.

African Mask © Pitt Rivers Museum

African mask © Pitt Rivers Museum

 










"These two African masks (above) tell us about standards of beauty in parts of Africa. Just as we tattoo ourselves, these people cut into their skin and place inks into the cuts, leaving colourful scars behind. See in the scars on the forehead of the mask above. These were considered beautiful, and were a way of showing you were from a particular tribe. Elongated foreheads were a sign of class and beauty in Africa. As babies, our skull bones haven't fused together; so people can safely change the shape of the head.

"Preserving these fabrics can be very important too. The Pitt Rivers is sometimes used to help bring back arts that have died out. If particular weaving techniques have been forgotten, photos of these scarves could be very helpful.

Woven textile © Pitt Rivers Museum

Photographing the Education handling collection 
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Preparing objects to photograph 
© Pitt Rivers Museum

"But a great thing about the Pitt Rivers is how varied it can be. While my friend doing work experience in a bakery did the same thing every day, I had different jobs, almost every day. From opening the museum, to helping with crafts for primary school workshops, to writing this very blog post, my time at the Pitt Rivers Museum has been unforgettable."

Jasmine, work experience student, March 2016