a.k.a. 13055 , BOSS, @sketch_finish

Dan Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022)

Artist Dan Graham died yesterday.
There’s a really excellent interview with him from 2009 here: bordercrossingsmag.com/article/dan-graham-mirror-complexities
Love the part about Nauman and Andre thinking materials for their pieces could be returned to the store. And humour in LeWitt. And the story of the three versions of Homes in America, the work that launched his career, the first one without the pictures! (pictures of the spreads below)
Graham was hard to get. There was nobody like him. His work was difficult (the mirror pieces in particular). It stood outside of trends, styles or movements. He was a contrarian, a contrarian’s contrarian maybe.
It’s hard to understand how he became as famous as he did. Which is not terribly famous, not Picasso famous, but well known and respected by artists and a few critical theorists and museum folks. when his work is so difficult. There is something about power about it, the panopticon, the spectacle, voyeurism. It makes you uncomfortable but you can’t dismiss it either. It’s serious shit. Michael Asher is another artist who is at once obscure but important. Totally different schtik than Graham but equally sort of intimidating and saying something you feel you need to know.
That Graham loved magazines, architecture, rock and roll and writing and let those loves inform his work was part of the great “opening up” that was the 60s and 70s, creating many avenues for the artists who followed.
Dan Graham March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022
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First posted on Instagram, @sketch_finish


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