Dan Graham

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For the Major League Baseball catcher, see Dan Graham (baseball).
Dan Graham
Self-taught
Known forConceptual art, Installation art, Sculpture, Photography, Writing, Video art, Performance art, Education, Art critic, Closed-circuit television
Notable workPerformer/Audience/Mirror, Rock My Religion, Two-way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube, Don't Trust Anyone Over 30, Yin/Yang
MovementMinimalism, Conceptual art
AwardsCoutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award, Skowhegan Medal for Mixed Media, French Vermeil Medal

Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned the spectrum from heady

art theory essays, reviews of rock music, Dwight D. Eisenhower's paintings, and Dean Martin's television show. His early magazine-based art predates, but is often associated with, conceptual art. His later work focused on cultural phenomena by incorporating photography, video, performance art, glass and mirror installation art structures, and closed-circuit television. He lived and worked in New York City.[1]

Childhood and early career

Dan Graham was born in

Nouveau Roman writers.[2]

Work

Graham began his art career in 1964, at the age of 22, when he founded the John Daniels Gallery in New York City. He worked there until 1965, when he started creating his own conceptual pieces. During his time at the gallery, he exhibited works by minimalist artists such as

0 to 9 magazine
, an avant-garde journal that experimented with language and meaning-making.

When making his own work, Graham proved himself to be a wide-ranging

Madison Square Park
.

Graham's work was always firmly based within conceptual art or post-conceptual art practice. Early examples were photographs and numerological sequences, often printed in magazines, such as Figurative (1965) and Schema (1966). With the latter, Graham drew on the actual physical structure of the magazine in which it is printed for the content of the work itself. As such the same work changes according to its physical/structural location within the world. His early breakthrough-work however was a series of magazine-style photographs with text, Homes for America (1966–67), which counterpoints the monotonous and alienating effect of 1960's housing developments with their supposed desirability and the physical-geometry of a printed article.[4] Graham's other works include Side Effects/Common Drugs (1966) and Detumescence (1966).

After this Graham broadened his conceptual practice with sculpture, performance, film, video including perhaps his best known works

Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. After a lecture at the Berlin University of the Arts, Klaus Biesenbach
invited Graham to conceive the pavilion for Kunst-Werke, which Biesenbach founded, and he assisted Graham in the realization of the project.

Influences

In Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer's publication Pep Talk in 2009, Graham gave "Artists' and Architects' Work That Influenced Me" (in alphabetical order): Michael Asher, Larry Bell, Flavin, Itsuko Hasegawa, LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Kazuo Shinohara, Michael Snow, Mies van der Rohe, and Robert Venturi.[5]

Writer Brian Wallis said that Graham's works “displayed a profound faith in the idea of the present, [he] sought to comprehend post-war American culture through imaginative new forms of analytical investigation, facto-graphic reportage, and quasi-scientific mappings of space/time relationships.”

minimalist movements. [citation needed
]

Graham exhibited a predominantly minimalist aesthetic in his earlier photographs and prints. His prints of numeric sequences, words, graphs, and graphics strongly reflect his minimalist qualities. His later works became very conceptual, and examine the relationships between interior space, exterior space, and the perception of the viewer when anticipated boundaries are changed.

Photography

Soon after he left the John Daniels Gallery, Graham started a series of photographs which began in the nineteen sixties and continued into the early twenty first century. Of his magazine work, Graham said,

There was this whole idea of defeating monetary value in the air in the ’60s, so my idea was to put things in magazine pages where they'd be disposable with no value. And that was a hybrid also because the work was a combination of art criticism and essay: magazine page as an artwork.[7]

These photographs question the relationship between public and private architecture and the ways in which each space affects behavior. Some of his first conceptual works dealt with different forms of printed artwork of numeric sequences. In 1965 Graham began shooting color photographs for his series Homes For America. All the photographs taken were of single-family homes around the American suburbs. This photo series, one of the first artworks in the space of text, was published as a twopage spread in Arts Magazine. The "article" is an assembly of texts including his photographs. The photographs were also chosen for the exhibition "Projected Art" at the Finch College Museum of Art. In 1969, Graham focused on performance and film that explored the social dynamic of the audience, incorporating them into the work, leading to an 80 ft photo series, Sunset to Sunrise.[8]

Performance, film, and video

From the late 1960s into the late 70's, Graham shifted toward a largely performance-based practice, incorporating film and the new medium of video in his systematic investigations of

concave mirrors filming themselves and their distorted reflections, introduces the mirrored image as a prominent theme for Graham, which he would explore extensively in his performance and video practice as well as his later architectural work.[12]

Graham stated that his works are “models to define the limits of an idea of representation as the conventional limits which necessarily define the situation between the artist and spectator,” and his performances in the 1970s foreground this relational approach.[13] In these works Graham explicitly invoked theories of structural linguistics, especially the work of Jacques Lacan.[14] Graham's 1972 performance piece Two Consciousness Projections underscores a preoccupation with phenomenological aspects of relationality, utilizing the reflective capacities of video feedback. In the performance, a woman sits in front of a monitor displaying her image from the live feed of a video camera held by a man behind the monitor and attempts to narrate her conscious mind, while the man describes her as he watches through the camera. This work presents an experiment in self-perception and representation, modulated by numerous mirroring agents—the woman's own image on the monitor, the “image” of her depicted by the man, as well as both performers’ awareness of the audience.[15] In his own writings, Graham articulated an interest in deconstructing the divisions between interior intention and visible behavior formed when looking at one's reflection in a mirror, and proposed video feedback as both a technical and conceptual means by which to achieve this.[16] Many of Graham's performance pieces work to exhibit and exploit the spontaneous interaction between thought and expression, inside and outside, extending this dissolution of barriers to dichotomies of performer and audience, private and public.[17] Graham's most complex interrogation of this is the performance Performer/Audience/Mirror (1977), in which he stood between a large mirror and an audience, describing himself, the audience, his reflection, and the audience's reflection in sequential phases of continuous commentary. Expanding upon the themes in Two Consciousness Projections, this work implicates the audience in their own feedback cycle of self-perception.[18]

Graham produced a number of videos that documented his performance works, such as the 1972 Past Future Split Attention, in which the conversation of two acquaintances becomes a cacophony of simultaneous speech and interruption.[19] One other major example of a documented performance by Graham Performance/Audience/Mirror (1975).

Graham also incorporated video into installations, where he created environments in which video technology is used to alter the viewer's own bodily experience. In 1974, he created an installation with a series of videos called "Time Delay Room", which used time-delayed Closed-circuit television cameras and video projections.

Lastly, Graham produced a number of video

Whitney Museum of American Art, and Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art.[20][21] Minor Threat documents the youth culture surrounding the band of the same name. In it, Graham analyses the social implications of this subculture, treating it "as a tribal rite, a catalyst for the violence and frustration of its predominantly male, teenage audience."[22]

Pavilions

Gate of Hope (1993) in Stuttgart, Germany
Pavilion in Berlin, Germany
Dan Graham 2007 in Portland
Two-Way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth. Family in a box, Minneapolis photo by Wendy Seltzer

Some of Graham's artworks are said to blur the line between sculpture and architecture. From the 1980s on, Graham worked on an ongoing series of freestanding, sculptural objects called pavilions. Graham's popularity grew after he started his walk-in pavilions and he received commissions all over the world. His pavilions are steel and glass sculptures which create a different space which disorients the viewer from his or her usual surroundings or knowledge of space. They are made of a few huge panes of glass or mirror, or of half-mirrored glass that is both reflective and transparent.[23] Wooden lattice and steel are other materials most commonly used in his work.

The

MIT calls his pavilions rigorously conceptual, uniquely beautiful, and insistently public. The pavilions create a unique experience for the viewer. His pavilions are created for the public experience. His pavilions combine architecture and art. Dan Graham's pavilion works have been compared to Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sjima's work on the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.[24]
The glass wall of the structure reflects and distorts light much like Graham's sculptures. The layered, but simplistic quality is said to be very much like Graham's. The structures are similar in their study of space and light.

In 1981, Graham started work on a decade long project in New York City. The work Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube and Video Salon was part of the Rooftop Urban Park Project. Graham worked on the piece in collaboration with architects Mojdeh Baratloo and Clifton Balch. This transparent and reflective pavilion transformed the roof of 548 West 22nd Street into a rooftop park. The pavilion captures the surrounding landscape and changes of light creating an intense visual effect with the sky. The Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube and Video Salon has become one of his most well-known works throughout his art career.

After numerous commissions in Europe, the Children's Pavilion (1988–93) was the first piece Graham was commissioned to do in the United States. A collaboration with

Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art attempted to realise the pavilion in Rotterdam's Ommoord district; the plan was eventually abandoned in 1994.[25] Related works include Children's Pavilion (Chambre d'Amis) (1986), Skateboard Pavilion (1989), and Funhouse for the Children of Saint-Janslein (1997–99).[26]

In 2014, a temporary installation by Graham called Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout (2014) was created on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with the Swiss landscape architect Günther Vogt. The pavilion consists of an S-shaped curve of slightly reflective glass, bookended by two parallel ivy hedgerows.[27] Later, Graham worked with the British fashion designer Phoebe Philo to create an S-shaped steel-and-glass pavilion in which to show her spring/summer 2017 collection.[28]

Selected pavilions

Other realized pavilions by Graham include:

Writings

Graham produced a notable body of writing. He worked as an art critic, writing revealing articles about fellow artists, art, architecture, video, and rock music. His writings and works are collected in several catalogues and books as "Dan Graham Beyond" (MIT Press 2011), Rock My Religion. Writings and Projects 1965–1990, edited by Brian Wallis andTwo Way Mirror Power: Selected Writings by Dan Graham on His Art".[35]

Collaborations

For the 2007

Performa, Graham designed the stage set made for New York City based band Japanther's performance. Graham collaborated previously with Japanther on the rock puppet opera Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Entertainment by Dan Graham with Tony Oursler and Other Collaborators (2004).[36]

Personal life and death

Graham died in New York City on February 19, 2022, at the age of 79.[37]

Select artworks

  • Homes for America, 1967, John Gibson
  • Piece, 1969, Cindy Hinant, New York.[38]
  • Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay, 1974, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
  • Yesterday/Today, 1975, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
  • Back-Yard New Housing Project, 1978, Lisson Gallery, London.
  • Two Way Mirror with Hedge Labyrinth, 1989, Lisson Gallery.
  • Pavilion Influenced by Moon Windows, 1989.
  • Untitled sculpture, 1996, installed in Vågan, North Norway.[39]
  • Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out Variation C, 1989–2000, Lisson Gallery Swimming Pool/Fish Pond, 1997, Patrick Painter Editions.
  • Two Way Mirror with Lattice with Vines Labyrinth, 1998, Lisson Gallery.
  • Girls Make-Up Room, 1998–2000, Hauser & Wirth Zürich London.
  • Greek Meander Pavilion, Open, 2001, Lisson Gallery.
  • Bisected Triangle, Interior Curve, 2002, Madison Square Park.
  • Waterloo Sunset at the Hayward Gallery, London, 2002–03.[40]
  • Terminal 5 In 2004, the dormant Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5) at JFK Airport) briefly hosted an art exhibition called Terminal Five,[41] curated by Rachel K. Ward[42] and featuring the work of 18 artists[43] including Dan Graham. The show featured work, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the terminal's architecture[43] — and was to run from October 1, 2004, to January 31, 2005[43] — though it closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during its opening gala.[42][44]
  • Sculpture or Pavillion?, 2015,
    Museum De Pont

Exhibitions

Graham's first solo show was held in 1969 at the John Daniels Gallery in New York. In 1991, an exhibition of his pavilions and photographs was held at the

IX and X (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992 and 1997), and at Skulptur Projekte Münster
'87 and '97.

References

  1. ^ a b Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist Who Bent Time and Space, Dies at 79
  2. ^ a b c d Kennedy, Randy (June 26, 2009). "A Round Peg". The New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Themes: Art and Cinematography: Graham". Media Art Net (www.medienkunstnetz.de). 15 February 2007. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  4. ^ Dan Graham (October Files), Alex Kitnick, MIT Press, 2011. Ch.1.
  5. ^ Lehrer-Graiwer, Sarah, ed. (2009). Dan Graham: Pep Talk. www.peptalkreader.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  6. ISBN 0262071479
    .
  7. ^ Carlos Brillembourg, "In Conversation: Dan Graham with Carlos Brillembourg" the Brooklyn Rail, July–August 2012.http://brooklynrail.org/2012/08/art/dan-graham-with-carlos-brillembourg
  8. ^ Dan Graham Tate Collection.
  9. ^ Chrissie, Iles (2009). "You Are the Information: Dan Graham and Performance," in Dan Graham: Beyond. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 55.
  10. ^ Pelzer, Birgit (2001). "Double Intersections: The Optics of Dan Graham," in Dan Graham. New York: Phaidon. p. 44,45.
  11. ^ Marian Goodman Gallery, press release statement for "Dan Graham Films: 1969-1974 Archived 2013-11-09 at the Wayback Machine" (January 8, 2002).
  12. ^ Pelzer, Birgit (2001). "Double Intersections: The Optics of Dan Graham," in Dan Graham. New York: Phaidon. pp. 46–48.
  13. ^ Pelzer, Birgit (2001). "Double Intersections: The Optics of Dan Graham," in Dan Graham. New York: Phaidon. p. 48,49.
  14. ^ Dan Graham, "Performance/Audience/Mirror" (1975), in Two-Way Mirror Power: Selected Writings by Dan Graham on His Art.
  15. ^ Pelzer, Birgit (2001). "Double Intersections: The Optics of Dan Graham," in Dan Graham. New York: Phaidon. p. 49.
  16. ^ Graham, Dan (1999). "Essay on Video, Architecture, and Television," in Two Way Mirror Power: Selected Writings by Dan Graham on his Art. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 55,56.
  17. ^ Chrissie, Iles (2009). "You Are the Information: Dan Graham and Performance," in Dan Graham: Beyond. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 66–70.
  18. ^ Chrissie, Iles (2009). "You Are the Information: Dan Graham and Performance," in Dan Graham: Beyond. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 69,70.
  19. ^ Martha Schendener (November 30, 2012), When Counterculture of 1971 Got Its Hands on Video The New York Times.
  20. ^ Sevior, Michelle (2018-11-07). "ArtPremium – 1968 - Sparta Dreaming Athens at Château de Montsoreau-Museum Contemporary Art". ArtPremium. Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
  21. ^ Auto Italia. "http://autoitaliasoutheast.org/blog/news/project/dan-grahams-rock-my-religion/[permanent dead link]". Retrieved 27-08-2015.
  22. ^ Minor Threat (1983).
  23. ^ Blake Gopnik (September 3, 2009), Blake Gopnik on the Dan Graham Retrospective at N.Y.'s Whitney The Washington Post
  24. ^ "INTO THE LIGHT". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  25. ^ Jeff Wall on long-term loan to the Boijmans Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
  26. ^ Dan Graham: Children's Day Care, CD-Rom, Cartoon and Computer Screen Library Project & other works for water, backyards, and children, April 5 - May 20, 2000 Archived 2013-12-10 at the Wayback Machine Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
  27. ^ a b Karen Rosenberg (April 29, 2014), [Artists Hold Up a Glass to a City's Changing Face] The New York Times.
  28. ^ Jo Ellison (October 2, 2016), Céline SS17 show report: Paris Fashion Week Financial Times.
  29. The Boston Chronicle
    .
  30. ^ Dan Graham, Star of David Pavilion (1999)[permanent dead link] Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
  31. ^ Dan Graham, 2-Way Mirror and Punched Aluminum Solid Triangle (1996) Archived 2012-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, Arken Museum of Modern Art.
  32. ^ Triangular Bridge Over Water (1990) Archived 2011-12-29 at the Wayback Machine Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis.
  33. ^ Outdoor sculptures in Stockholm: "Pavilion Sculpture II, 1984". Moderna Museet. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  34. ^ Dan Graham, March 3 - 28, 2009 Archived 2013-12-30 at the Wayback Machine Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
  35. doi:10.7208/9780226008721-007 (inactive 31 January 2024).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link
    )
  36. ^ Dan Graham March 3–28, 2009 Archived 2013-12-30 at the Wayback Machine Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
  37. ^ Greenberger, Alex (19 February 2022). "Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist Who Bent Time and Space, Dies at 79". Art News. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  38. ^ Considine, Austin (February 2013). "Matthew Watson's Personal Exchanges". Art in America Magazine. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  39. ^ "Artscape Nordland (North Norway)". Sculpture magazine, June 2004.
  40. ^ "Dan Graham: Waterloo Sunset at the Hayward Gallery, London". Sculpture magazine, April 2004.
  41. ^ "TWA Terminal Named as One of the Nation's Most Endangered Places". Municipal Art Society New York, February 9th, 2004. Archived from the original on 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
  42. ^ a b "A Review of a Show You Cannot See". Designobvserver.com, Tom Vanderbilt, January 14, 2005. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05.
  43. ^ a b c "Now Boarding: Destination, JFK". The Architects Newspaper, September 21, 2004.
  44. ^ "Art Exhibition at JFK Airport's TWA Terminal Abruptly Shut Down". Architectural Record, John E. Czarnecki,, October 11, 2004. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dan Graham.

Further reading

  • Josh Thorpe (2009). Dan Graham Pavilions: a guide. Toronto: Art Metropole.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Graham&oldid=1218177781"