David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois. An African-American, he is a conceptual installation artist using his found-object media as a platform for Dadaist social commentary, primarily on racial themes.

Hammons places himself as an artist between Arte Povera and Marcel Duchamp. He has risen to prominence while at the same time consciously avoiding the attention of critics, galleries, and museums, preferring to do things in the street.

Although he studied art in Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis Art Institute, and, in New York City at the Parson's School of Design, he has stated, "I can't stand art actually. I've never, ever liked art, ever. I never took it in school."

Hammons' Baske...