Eye Magazine #14 "Cobalt Myth Mechanics": David Hammons

David Hammons
The Man Nobody Killed

folio 29 from

[Various Artists]
Eye Magazine #14 "Cobalt Myth Mechanics"
New York City, USA: Eye Publications, 1986
[unpaginated], 27.9 × 22.9 × 1.9 cm., spiral bound
Edition of 200 (fewer than 150 produced)

(see previous posts)



Michael Jerome Stewart was an art student who police arrested at 2:50am on September 16, 1983, on the First Avenue L-train station. At 3:22am they delivered him to Bellevue hospital, in a coma. He died thirteen days later, without ever having regained consciousness. He was twenty-five years old.

His alleged crime was some soft-tip marker graffiti.

The cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest and police claimed that he became “very violent” in the van transporting him to the precinct. They hogtied him - bound him at the ankles and tethered his hands to his feet by an elastic strap. His screams were heard by over two dozen Parsons School of Design students, from their dorm windows. One recalled cries of "Oh my God, someone help me", and "What did I do? What did I do?"

David Hammons' tribute to Stewart in Eye Magazine #14 is a screen print on found cardboard, with unique variations. Some featured additional collaged materials.

Other tributes include Jean-Michel Basquiat's Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) and songs by Lou Reed and Michelle Shocked, which mention Stewart by name. Spike Lee's 1989 film Do The Right Thing is dedicated to the six families victims of victims of police violence: Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Griffith, Arthur Miller, Jr., Edmund Perry, Yvonne Smallwood, and Michael Stewart. The death of the character  Radio Raheem by a police choke hold was inspired by the arrest of Stewart.

Keith Haring donated money to raise awareness of his death, and a young Madonna held a benefit concert for him (Stewart had appeared in Madonna's first music video, for the song "Everybody" just prior to his death).