Dan Graham
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is an influential figure in the field of contemporary art, both a practitioner of conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and an art critic and theorist. His art career began in 1964 when he moved to New York and opened the John Daniels Gallery. Graham’s artistic talents have wide variety. His artistic fields consist of film, video, performance, photography, architectural models, and glass and mirror structure. Graham especially focuses on the relationship between his artwork and the viewer in his pieces. Graham made a name for himself in the 1980s as an architect of conceptual glass and mirrored pavilions.
Childhood and early career
Dan Graham was born in Urbana, IllinoisUrbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
, the son of a chemist and an educational psychologist. He describes his father as abusive. When he was 3, Graham moved to Winfield Park, New Jersey. He then moved to Westfield, New Jersey when he was thirteen years old where he found inspiration for his series of minimalist photographs Homes for America (1967). He had no formal education after high school and is self-educated. During his teens, reading included Margaret Mead, Claude Lévi-Strauss, the literary critic Leslie Fiedler and the French Nouveau Roman writers. He wanted to be a writer, loved rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
which he wrote about critically and because he couldn't afford art supplies his early art took the form of magazine "articles".
Work
Graham began his art career in 1964, at the age of 22, when he founded the John Daniels Gallery in New York. 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 Carl AndréCarl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
, Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
—LeWitt's first solo gallery show, Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
, Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
, and Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.-Early life and career:...
.
In the past thirty years, Dan Graham has proved himself to be an all-encompassing artist. His wide variety of work consists of performance art, installations, video, sculpture, and photography. Few of Graham’s works have been commissioned or exhibited in the United States. In fact, the only major work commissioned in the U.S. in the last decade was the Rooftop Urban Park Project, in which he designed the piece Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube and Video Salon (1981–1991). Some other commissions in the U.S. are Yin/Yang at MIT, the labyrinth at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States.It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board...
, and at Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, and in Madison Square Park.
Graham's work was always firmly based within conceptual art practice. Early examples were photographs and numerological sequences, often printed in magazines, for example Figurative (1965) and Schema (1966). With the latter Graham draws 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. Other works include Site Effects/Common Drugs (1966) and Detumescence (1966).
After this Graham broadens his conceptual practice development with performance, film and sculpture including Rock My Religion (1984) and Performer/Audience/Mirror (1975). His installations such as Public Space/Two Audiences (1976) or Yesterday/Today (1975) further inspired his move to the indoor and outdoor pavilions he most recently designs. His many conceptual pavilions including Two Way Mirror with Hedge Labyrinth (1989) and Two Way Mirror and Open Wood Screen Triangular Pavilion (1990) have increased his popularity as an artist.
In addition to his visual works, he has published a large array of critical and speculative writing.
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 BellLarry Bell (artist)
Larry Bell is a contemporary American artist and sculptor. He lives and works in Taos, New Mexico, and maintains a studio in Venice, California. From 1957 to 1959 he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles as a student of Robert Irwin, Richards Ruben, Robert Chuey, and Emerson Woelfer...
, Flavin, Itsuko Hasegawa
Itsuko Hasegawa
is a noted Japanese architect.-Biography:Hasegawa was born in Shizuoka, received her degree in architecture from Kanto Gakuin University , trained with Kiyonori Kikutake. In 1969, Hasegawa entered Kazuo Shinohara’s lab at the Tokyo Institute of Technology as a graduate student...
, LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Robert Mangold
Robert Mangold
Robert Mangold is an American minimalist artist.- Works :“Robert Mangold’s paintings,” wrote Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times in 1997, “are more complicated to describe than they seem, which is partly what’s good about them: the way they invite intense scrutiny, which, in the nature of good...
, Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
, Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
, Kazuo Shinohara, Michael Snow
Michael Snow
Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...
, Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
and Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi
Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...
.
Writer Brian Wallis has 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.” Graham's work has been influenced by the social change of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, The Vietnam War, the Women's liberation movement
Women's liberation movement
The Women's Liberation Movement was a political movement, born in the 1960s from Second-Wave Feminism.It generated mythology almost before it was born such as bra burning - and it was allegedly a matter of deep concern to those within it at the time that its history would allegedly be rewritten...
as well as many other cultural changes. These prolific events and changes in history affected the conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and minimalist movements.
Minimalist art stripped art down to only its fundamental and bare essentials. Rarely were pictorial or illustrative imagery seen in minimalist works. Minimalism focused on the experience the artwork created for the viewer. The artist purposefully disconnected himself from the artwork. Even in the face of a chaotic world, minimalism was a calm, cool, and stable art form. This minimalist aesthetic was seen not only in visual art but throughout the art world in literature, music, architecture, and fashion. Dan Graham exhibited a predominately minimalist aesthetic in his earlier photographs and prints. His prints of numeric sequences, words, graphs, and graphics strongly reflect his minimalist qualities.
Graham’s later works have become very conceptual. He has an extreme interest with interior and exterior space in the relational behavior of the viewer when anticipated boundaries are changed. He as been not only a participant but also a developer in the conceptual art movement. Conceptual art is more about the idea behind the work and the process of creating it than the actual finished product. The concepts behind Graham’s artworks engage the viewer in the artwork. His artworks explore architecture and space and the effects they have on the viewer.
Photography
Soon after he left the John Daniels Gallery, Dan Graham started a series of photographs which started in the sixties and continues into the present. 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’s began shooting color photographs for his series Homes For America. All the photographs taken were of single-family homes, new shopping precincts, truck depots and roadside diners 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 MagazineArts Magazine
Arts Magazine was monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992. It was originally called The Art Digest and was earlier published semi-monthly from October to May and monthly from June to September. It was later renamed Arts and finally, 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
Finch College
Finch College was a baccalaureate women's college located in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It began as a finishing school for wealthy young women and later evolved into a liberal arts college...
. 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.
Performance and film
From 1969 to 1978 Graham worked primarily with performance, film and video, focusing, for example, on the synchronization of speech and breathing patterns between the artist and his audience.In 1970 Graham created a video titled Roll. Graham created a video in 1972 entitled Past Future Split Attention, which documented a project in which he psychologically reconstructed space and time. From 1974, with the installation/performance Present Continuous Past(s), Graham began to use two-way mirror walls in relation to real reflections and time-delayed video projections. Also in 1974, he created an installation with a series of videos called Time Delay Room. Graham created the video Performance/Audience/Mirror in 1975. The video demonstrated the relationship between the performer and the audience and subjectivity versus objectivity. He made the more popular video Rock My Religion in 1982. In 1983, he made a video called Minor Threat
Minor Threat
Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1980 and disbanded in 1983. The band was relatively short-lived, but had a strong influence on the hardcore punk music scene, both stylistically and in establishing a "do it yourself" ethic for music distribution and...
documenting a rock band. His love for video was taken further when he started adding videos in installations. He incorporated mirrors, windows, surveillance cameras and video projectors in them.
The video Rock My Religion (1984) explores rock music as an art form and relates it to the development of the Shaker religion in America. The low quality image of the video is said to enhance the ideas within it. The video relates Rock and Roll to contemporary culture and the Shaker religion. It finds a way to draw a parallel between a Shaker family and the off balance family of rock. He observes the changes in beliefs and superstitions in the Shaker religion since the 18th century.
Another video of Grahams entitled Performer/Audience/Mirror explains the relationship between the audience and the performer. He demonstrates the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity. Graham stands in front of a mirrored wall facing the audience. He describes the audience’s actions to them then turns to face his reflection in the mirror. This subjective and then objective perception is part of what makes Dan Graham’s artwork one of a kind.
Pavilions
Dan Graham’s artworks are said to blur the line between sculpture and architecture. Since the 1980s, Graham has been working on an ongoing series of freestanding, sculptural objects called pavilions; they represent a hybrid between a quasi-functional space and an installation that serves to expose processes of perception and certain expectations. Graham's popularity has grown since he started his walk-in pavilions and he has 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. Wooden lattice and steel are other materials most commonly used in his work.The MIT Art Center 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
Ryue Nishizawa
is an Japanese architect based in Tokyo. He is a graduate of Yokohama National University, and is director of his own firm, Office of Ryue Nishizawa, established in 1997. In 1995, he co-founded the firm SANAA with the architect Kazuyo Sejima...
and Kazuyo Sjima’s work on the Kanazawa Museum. The glass wall of the structure reflects and distorts light much like Grahams 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.
The Children’s Pavilion (1989) is a very conceptual piece relating to the children of the nation. Even after numerous commissions in Europe, the Children’s Pavilion was actually the first piece he was commissioned to do in the United States. The piece is public building by Dan Graham and Jeff Wall
Jeff Wall
Jeffrey "Jeff" Wall, OC, RSA is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. Wall has been a key figure in Vancouver's art scene since the early-1970s...
. The Children’s Pavilion is a circular shaped room with an oculus that is both transparent and reflective at the top. Nine circular framed photographs of children belonging to many nationalities and ethnic backgrounds surround the room. The pavilion is designed so the viewers on the outside of the building could look inside as well. Related works include Children's Pavilion (Chambre d'Amis) (1986), Skateboard Pavilion (1989), and Funhouse for the Children of Saint-Janslein (1997–99).
The pavilion Girl’s Make-up Room (1997-00), which is related to projects that were created for the 1997 Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster...
, is composed of two-way mirror glass with sliding doors made of perforated steel. Visitors are asked to enter the room and use make-up at a little table - the two-way mirror walls, however only produce a distorted reflection. The perforated steel walls are continuously producing changing ray patterns. Combined with the semi-mirrored glass these ray patterns create a "virtual world" that is changing with the light and is thus in a state of permanent flux.
Other realized pavilions by Graham include: Crazy Spheroid (2011), DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; Kaleidoscope / Doubled (2010), La Rochelle, France; Half Cylinder/ Perforated Steel Triangular Enclosure, Kortrijk, Belgium; Two V's and 2 Half-Cylinders off-Alligned, Brussels, Belgium; One Straight Line Crossed by One Curved Line (2009) Novartis
Novartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
HQ, Basel, Switzerland; Half Square/ Half Crazy at Casa del Fascio, Como, Italy; From Mannerism to Rococo (2007); Homage to Vilanova Artigas (2006), the São Paulo Biennial 2006; Bisected Triangle Inside Curve, Madison Square Park, New York (2002); Waterloo Sunset (2002–2003), Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
, London; Yin/Yang Pavilion (1997/2002), MIT, Cambridge, MA (in Steven Holl
Steven Holl
Steven Holl is an American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 1998 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,...
's dormitory); Two-Way Mirror / Hedge - Almost Complete Circle (2001), K21 Ständehaus
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the K20 at Grabbeplatz, the K21 in the Ständehaus and the Schmela Haus...
, Düsseldorf, Germany; S-Curve for St. Gallen (2001), Hauser & Wirth Collection, St Gallen; Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000), Wanås Castle
Wanås Castle
Wanås Castle is a castle in Östra Göinge Municipality, Scania, in southern Sweden. It situated to the west of Knislinge, approximately north of Kristianstad.-A selection of the outdoors exhibitions:*The little bridge , diabas, by Stefan Wewerka...
, Sweden; Star of David Pavilion (1999), Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
; Elliptical Pavilion (1995/1999), Michaelkirchstrasse, Berlin; Café Bravo (1998), Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art
Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art
The Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art is a contemporary art institution in Berlin’s Mitte District. It is located at - Auguststrasse 69 D-10117 Berlin....
, Berlin; Argonne Pavilion II (1998), Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
, Argonne, Illinois;Two-Way Mirror Curved Hedge Zig-Zag Labyrinth (1996), Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, Middlebury; Two-Way Mirror Triangle with One Curved Side (1996), Vågan
Vågan
Vågan is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Lofoten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Svolvær....
, Norway; 2-Way Mirror and Punched Aluminum Solid Triangle (1996), originally created for the garden of the Royal Shooting Club in Copenhagen, now at the Arken Museum of Modern Art
Arken Museum of Modern Art
ARKEN Museum of Modern Art is a private non-for-profit charity, state authorized, contemporary art museum near Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The museum was conceived and created by Copenhagen County.-Museum:...
; Parabolic Triangular Pavillon I (1996), Nordhorn; Two-Way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth (1994–1996), Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis; Star of David Pavillon for Schloss Buchberg (1991-1996), Gars am Kamp
Gars am Kamp
Gars am Kamp is a town in the district of Horn in Lower Austria, Austria....
; Double Exposure (1995/2003), Serralves Foundation
Serralves Foundation
Serralves Foundation is an art foundation whose mission is to raise the general public's awareness concerning contemporary art and the environment. The foundation is located in Porto, Portugal.-Casa de Serralves:...
, Porto; Cylinder Bisected by Plane (1995), Benesse House Museum, Naoshima; New Labyrinth for Nantes (1992-1994), Nantes; Star of David Pavillon/Triangular Pavilion with Triangular Roof Rotated 45° for Hamburg (1989/99), Hamburg; Skateboard Pavilion (1989); Octagon for Münster (1987), Münster, Germany; Pavillion Sulpture II (1984), Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet
Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén...
, Stockholm, Sweden; and Rooftop Urban Park Project for Dia:Chelsea, New York (1981/91).
Dan Graham Pavilions: a guide, edited by Josh Thorpe, was published in 2009 by Art Metropole in Toronto. Six Sculptures/Pavilions for Pleasure (2001), created in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth is one of the world's leading contemporary art galleries. In addition to representing over 40 established and emerging artists, the gallery represents the estates of Eva Hesse, Allan Kaprow, Lee Lozano, Jason Rhoades, Dieter Roth and André Thomkins, as well as the Henry Moore Family...
, documents six different pavilions by Graham that are in public places and have different functions.
Writings
Dan Graham has made major contributions through his writing. He works as an art critic, writing revealing articles about fellow artists. He has contributed inquisitorial ads in newspapers and writings in magazines. Most notably, from 1965 to 1969 he produced a series of texts, such as Schema (1966), which he inserted into mass-market magazines. He has also written books along with other writers. Many of the books are a collection of essays about his works. The most read include Two Way Mirror Power: Selected Writings by Dan Graham on His Art, Half Square Half Crazy, and Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967.Collaborations
For the Performa festival in 2007, Dan Graham designed the stage set made for New York based band JapantherJapanther
Japanther is an art project, established by Matt Reilly and Ian Vanek, then students at Pratt Institute. Japanther was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 2011 Venice Biennale, and has collaborated with a diverse pool of artists such as gelitin, Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, Dan Graham,...
's performance. Graham has 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).
Select artworks
- Homes for America, 1967, John Gibson
- Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay, 1974, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.http://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/4180
- 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.
- 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.
- Terminal 5Terminal 5 (exhibition)Terminal 5 was an art exhibition that took place in October 2004 at the then disused Eero Saarinen–designed TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport....
In 2004, the dormant Saarinen-designedEero SaarinenEero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5)TWA Flight CenterThe TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center, opened in 1962 as a standalone terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport .for Trans World Airlines...
at JFK Airport)John F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
briefly hosted an art exhibition called Terminal Five, curated by Rachel K. Ward and featuring the work of 18 artists including Dan Graham. The show featured work, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the terminal's architecture — and was to run from October 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005 — though it closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during its opening gala.
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 Lisson GalleryLisson Gallery
The Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Bell Street, Lisson Grove, London, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents such artists as Ai Weiwei, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Jonathan Monk, Julian Opie, Richard Wentworth and Turner Prize winners Anish Kapoor...
in London. Another important exhibition featuring Graham was "Public/Private", an exhibition that traveled to four different venues. The show, which included his pavilions, architectural photographs and models, performances, and video installations, had its opening in 1994 at the Moore College of Art and Design. In 2001, a retrospective was held covering his 35-year career. The museums holding the event included the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art dedicated to the arts of the 20th/21st centuries. It is located at 11 Avenue du Président Wilson in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.-Description:...
, Kroller-Muller Museum
Kröller-Müller Museum
The Kröller-Müller Museum is an art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands.-Museum:...
in Otterlo
Otterlo
Otterlo is a small village in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe....
, Holland
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and Kiasma
Kiasma
Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki, Finland. Its name kiasma, Finnish for chiasma, alludes to the basic conceptual idea of its architect, Steven Holl. The museum exhibits the contemporary art collection of the Finnish National Gallery founded in 1990...
Museum in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Graham's work has also been exhibited at documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
s VII, IX, and X in Kassel, and at Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster...
'87 and '97. The Lisson Gallery
Lisson Gallery
The Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Bell Street, Lisson Grove, London, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents such artists as Ai Weiwei, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Jonathan Monk, Julian Opie, Richard Wentworth and Turner Prize winners Anish Kapoor...
in London has been home to many of Dan Graham’s works.
Selected solo exhibitions
- 2011, Dan Graham: Models and Videos, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
- 2010, Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, France.
- 2009, Dan Graham: Beyond, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (Retrospective)
- 2009, Dan Graham: Beyond, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Retrospective)
- 2009, Dan Graham: Beyond, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Retrospective)
- 2001, Dan Graham Œuvres, 1965–2000, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
- 2000, Dan Graham: Children's Day Care Center, CD-Rom, Cartoon, and Computer Screen Library Project, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
- 1999, Dan Graham, Architekturmodell, Kunst-Werke Berlin, Berlin
- 1997, Dan Graham, The Suburban City, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
- 1995, Dan Graham, Video/Architecture/Performance, EA-Generali-Foundation, Vienna
- 1994, Dan Graham: Public/Private, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia; List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; Toronto, LACE - Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles
- 1991, Pavilion Sculptures & Photographs, Lisson Gallery, London
- 1986, Storefront for Art and ArchitectureStorefront for Art and Architecture' is a contemporary art and architecture institution founded in 1982 in New York City.-Background:Founded in 1982 by Kyong Park, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design...
, New York
- 1981, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York
- 1977, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven
External links
- Lisson Gallery: Dan Graham
- Johnen + Schöttle: Dan Graham
- Dan Graham in the Video Data Bank
- EAI: Dan Graham
- Dan Graham: Rock/Music Writings
- Interview with Dan Graham on Vancouver during the 60s and 70s in FillipFillipFillip is a Vancouver-based contemporary art publishing organization formed in 2004. It publishes a magazine as well as books of critical writing...
- essay by Lynne CookeLynne CookeLynne Cooke is the curator at large for the Dia Art Foundation in New York, and chief curator at the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. Born in Geelong, Australia, Ms. Cooke received a B.A. from Melbourne University and an M.A. and Ph.D...
- Interview with Dan Graham (2007)
- Guardian Newspaper Q&A with Dan Graham (2003)
- Arch'it artland Dan Graham interviewed by Pietro Valle (2002)
- old interview (1995)
- Create it Act out Dan Graham's graphic "SCHEME"
- "Public Art Exhibits at Middlebury College"
- Dan Graham, Mediateca Media Art Space
- http://slashseconds.org/issues/003/002/articles/dpark/index.php
- Poem, October 2009 (After Dan Graham) Generative poem taking as its starting point Graham's suggestion that “it would be possible to ‘compose’ the entire set of permutationally possible poems and to select the applicable variant(s) with the aid of a computer which could ‘see’ the ensemble instantly.” At Triple Canopy (online magazine)Triple Canopy (online magazine)Triple Canopy is an online magazine, which was first published in 2008. In an effort to "slow down the Internet," the magazine curates and facilitates new media projects, which engage with the formal possibilities of the web. Its content ranges from art and literature to essays and critical theory...