Dan Graham

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.[4]

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.”[5] Graham's work has been influenced by the social change of the Civil Rights Movement, The Vietnam War, the Women's liberation movement as well as many other cultural changes. These prolific events and changes in history affected the conceptual art and minimalist movements.

Like LeWitt, Morris, Smithson and Flavin, Graham has worked at the intersection of minimalism and conceptual art. 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 have become very conceptual, and examine the relationships between interior space, exterior space, and the perception of the viewer when anticipated boundaries are changed.

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. 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.[6]

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.[7]

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 cybernetics, phenomenology and embodiment.[8] In 1969, he made his first film Sunset to Sunrise, in which the camera moves opposite to the course of sun, inverting the progression of time. This piece is emblematic of his filmic work that would extend into the early 1970s, in which he would explore “subjective, time-based processes” through perceptual, kinetic exercises, using the camera as an extension of his body and implicating the subjectivity of the viewer.[9] Other films from this period include Two Correlated Rotations (1969), Roll (1970), and Body Press (1970–72), all three featuring the interaction of two cameras or the juxtaposition of two films. Roll (1970) was a performance exercise in phenomenology similar to Bruce Nauman's early films.[10] Body Press, in which a naked man and woman stand back-to-back in a cylinder lined with 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.[11]

Graham has 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.[12] In these works Graham explicitly invokes theories of structural linguistics, especially the work of Jacques Lacan.[13] 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.[14] In his own writings, Graham articulates an interest in deconstructing the divisions between interior intention and visible behavior formed when looking at one's reflection in a mirror, proposing video feedback as both a technical and conceptual means by which to achieve this.[15] 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.[16] Graham's most complex interrogation of this is the performance Performer/Audience/Mirror (1977), in which he stands 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.[17]

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.[18] One other major example of a documented performance is Performance/Audience/Mirror (1975).

Graham also incorporated video into installations, creating environments where 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 documentaries, such as Rock My Religion from (1983–84) and Minor Threat (1983). Rock My Religion (1984) explores rock music as an art form and draws a parallel between it and the development of the Shaker religion in America. He observes the changes in beliefs and superstitions in the Shaker religion since the 18th century, and relates them to the development of rock culture. The film has been distributed widely, and has included screenings at both institutional and counter-cultural venues across Europe and the US, including Lisson Gallery, Auto Italia South East, Whitney Museum of American Art and Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art.[19][20] 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."[21]

Pavilion in Berlin, Germany

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. 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.[22] 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 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.

After numerous commissions in Europe, the Children's Pavilion (1988–93) was actually the first piece Graham was commissioned to do in the United States. A collaboration with Jeff Wall, the pavilion is a very conceptual piece relating to the children of the nation. It is a circular shaped room with an oculus that is both transparent and reflective at the top, so the viewers on the outside of the building could look inside as well. Wall's nine circular framed photographs of children belonging to many nationalities and ethnic backgrounds surround the room. Each child is shown half-length and viewed from below against the background of a sky. In each image Wall chooses a different sky. In 1991, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art attempted to realise the pavilion on Rotterdam's Ommoord district; the plan was eventually abandoned in 1994.[23] Related works include Children's Pavilion (Chambre d'Amis) (1986), Skateboard Pavilion (1989), and Funhouse for the Children of Saint-Janslein (1997–99).[24]

For a temporary installation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof garden is, Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout (2014) is a 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.[25] Later, Graham worked with designer Phoebe Philo to create an S-shaped steel-and-glass pavilion in which to show her spring/summer 2017 collection.[26]

Gate of Hope (1993) in Stuttgart, Germany

Other realized pavilions by Graham include:

• Crazy Spheroid – Two Entrances (2011), originally designed for the New York Botanical Garden, now at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA;[27]
• Norwegian Wood Lattice Bisected By Curved 2-way-mirror, 2010 on the banks of Lake Lemonsjøen, Norway
• Kaleidoscope/Doubled (2010), La Rochelle, France;
• Half Cylinder/ Perforated Steel Triangular Enclosure, Kortrijk, Belgium;
• Two V's and 2 Half-Cylinders off-Aligned, Brussels, Belgium;
• One Straight Line Crossed by One Curved Line (2009) Novartis HQ, Basel, Switzerland;
• Dhaka Pavilion (2008), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain;
• Two Half Cylinders (2008) at Bob Rennie's Rennie Collection, Vancouver, BC;
• 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, Interior Curve (2002), Inhotim, Brumadinho;
• Bisected Triangle Inside Curve (2002), Madison Square Park, New York;
• Waterloo Sunset (2002–2003), Hayward Gallery, London;
• Yin/Yang Pavilion (1997/2002), MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts (in Steven Holl's dormitory);
• Two-Way Mirror / Hedge - Almost Complete Circle (2001), K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Germany;
• S-Curve for St. Gallen (2001), Hauser & Wirth Collection, St Gallen;
• Rivoli Gate Pavilion (2000), Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy;
• Curved Two-Way Mirror Triangle, One Side Perforated Steel (2000), Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan;
• Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000), Wanås Castle, Sweden;
• Walkway for Hypo-Bank (1999), Bayerische Hypotheken und Wechselbank AG, Munich, Germany;
• Star of David Pavilion (1999), Tel Aviv Museum of Art;[28]
• Elliptical Pavilion (1995/1999), Vattenfall Europe, Michaelkirchstrasse, Berlin;
• Café Bravo (1998), Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin;
• Two-Way Mirror Curved and Straight and Open Shōji Screen Triangle (1998), Museum Ludwig, Cologne;
• Argonne Pavilion II (1998), Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois;
• Triangular Solid With Circular Insert (1997), Chiba City Museum of Art, Hikari, Areba;
• Two Two-Way Mirrored Parallelograms Joined with One Side Balanced Spiral Welded Mesh (1996), National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh;
• Two-Way Mirror Curved Hedge Zig-Zag Labyrinth (1996), Middlebury College, Middlebury;
• Two-Way Mirror Triangle with One Curved Side (1996), Vågan, Norway;
• Two-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;[29]
• Parabolic Triangular Pavillon I (1996), Nordhorn;
• Two-Way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth (1994–1996), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;
• Star of David Pavillon for Schloss Buchberg (1991–1996), Gars am Kamp;
• Double Exposure (1995/2003), initially proposed for a 1995 exhibition in Germany, later installed at Serralves Foundation, Porto;
• Cylinder Bisected by Plane (1995), Benesse House Museum, Naoshima;
• Double Cylinder (The Kiss) (1994), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art;
• New Labyrinth for Nantes (1992–1994), Place Commandant Jean l'Herminier, Nantes;
• Triangular Bridge Over Water (1990), Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis;[30]
• Star of David Pavillon/Triangular Pavilion with Triangular Roof Rotated 45° for Hamburg (1989/99), Hamburg;
• Triangular Solid with Circular Inserts, Variation D (1989), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh;
• Triangular Solid with Circular Inserts (1989), Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice;
• Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out (1989–2000), various places;
• Skateboard Pavilion (1989), various places;
• Octagon for Münster (1987), Münster, Germany;
• Two-Way Mirror Pergola Bridge I, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain des Pays de la Loire, Clisson, France;
• Pavilion Sculpture II (1984), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden;[31]
• Rooftop Urban Park Project (1981/91-2004) for Dia:Chelsea, New York;[25][32]
• Two Adjacent Pavilions (1981), Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands;
• Pavilion / Sculpture for Argonne (1978–81), Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois;
• Gate of Hope (1993), Leibfriedscher Garten, Stuttgart, Germany.

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. 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.

For the Performa festival in 2007, Dan Graham designed the stage set made for New York-based band Japanther'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).[33]

• 2015, Dan Graham Observatory/Playground, MAMO, Centre d'art de la Cité Radieuse, Marseille, France
• 2011, Dan Graham: Exposition d'overture, Le Consortium, France
• 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)[41]
• 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
• 2001, Dan Graham Works, 1965–2000, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto
• 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, Massachusetts; Toronto, LACE - Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles
• 1991, Pavilion Sculptures & Photographs, Lisson Gallery, London
• 1986, Storefront for Art and Architecture, 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