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Dan Graham

For fifty years, Dan Graham traced the symbiosis between architectural environments and their inhabitants. With a practice that encompassed curating, writing, performance, installation, video, photography and architecture, his analytical bent first came to attention with Homes for America (1966–67), a sequence of photos of suburban development in New Jersey, USA, accompanied by a text charting the economics of land use and the obsolescence of architecture and craftsmanship. Graham’s critical engagement manifests most alluringly in the glass and mirrored pavilions, which have been realised in sites all over the world. These instruments of reflection – visual and cognitive – highlight the voyeuristic elements of design in the built world; poised between sculpture and architecture, they glean a sparseness from 1960s Minimalism, redolent of Graham’s emergence in New York in the 1960s alongside Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd and Robert Smithson. Graham himself described his work and its various manifestations as ‘geometric forms inhabited and activated by the presence of the viewer, [producing] a sense of uneasiness and psychological alienation through a constant play between feelings of inclusion and exclusion.’ Considered himself first and foremost a writer-artist, Graham's writings and periodicals from the 1960s, including Figurative (1965) and Schema (1966), include published essays and reviews on everything from rock music and television culture to Dean Martin and Dwight D. Eisenhower's painting. These publications, predating Conceptual art, were a rejection of the limits of the art gallery’s ‘white cube’ format and an embrace of the ubiquity and disposable nature of monthly periodicals. 

Dan Graham was born in Urbana, Illinois, USA in 1942 and died in New York, New York, USA in 2022. He had solo exhibitions at Sirius Arts Centre, County Cork, Ireland (2018); the Red Brick Museum, Beijing, China (2017); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA (2016); Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA (2016); MAMO, Marseille, France (2015); ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2015); Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2014); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2014); Kunstmuseum Sankt Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland (2011); Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2009); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (2006); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2001); Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK (1997); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (1993); Kunsthalle Berne, Bern, Switzerland (1983); and the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA (1981). He participated in dOCUMENTA 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10, Kassel, Germany (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992, 1997) and showed work at the Venice Biennale, Italy (1976, 2003, 2005). Among numerous awards he received the Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award, Zurich, Switzerland (1992), the French Vermeil Medal, Paris, France (2001) and was honoured by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, USA in 2010.

Stage Set for Music no. 2 for Glenn

Dan Graham
Stage Set for Music no. 2 for Glenn

2018
Stainless steel and two way mirror 230 x 671.1 x 788.8 cm 90 1/2 x 264 1/8 x 310 1/2 in

Stage Set for Music no. 2 for Glenn

Dan Graham
Stage Set for Music no. 2 for Glenn

2018
Stainless steel and two way mirror 230 x 671.1 x 788.8 cm 90 1/2 x 264 1/8 x 310 1/2 in

Untitled

Dan Graham
Untitled

2018
Stainless steel and two way mirror 107 x 107 x 91 cm 42 1/8 x 42 1/8 x 35 3/4 in ed. 1 of 3

Whirligig

Dan Graham
Whirligig

2018
Stainless steel and two way mirror 125 x 125 x 91 cm 49 1/8 x 49 1/8 x 35 3/4 in ed. 1 of 3

Untitled

Dan Graham
Untitled

2018
Stainless steel and two way mirror 125 x 125 x 91 cm 49 1/8 x 49 1/8 x 35 3/4 in ed. 2 of 3

Play Pen for Play Pals

Dan Graham
Play Pen for Play Pals

2018
Stainless steel, glass and two way mirror 230 x 233.4 x 308.4 cm 90 1/2 x 91 7/8 x 121 3/8 in

Play Pen for Play Pals

Dan Graham
Play Pen for Play Pals

2018
Stainless steel, glass and two way mirror 230 x 233.4 x 308.4 cm 90 1/2 x 91 7/8 x 121 3/8 in

Showing Off the Body

Dan Graham
Showing Off the Body

2016
Two-way mirror glass, perforated steel 235 x 1321 x 2073 cm / 92 1/2 x 520 1/8 x 816 1/8 in

Two V's Entrance-Way

Dan Graham
Two V's Entrance-Way

2016
Laminated glass, stainless steel 235 x 827 x 508 cm / 92 1/2 x 325 5/8 x 200 in.

Bisected Ovoid

Dan Graham
Bisected Ovoid

2013
Wood, MDF, glass, aluminium, and acrylic 107 x 107 x 44 cm / 42 x 42 x 17 in.

Groovy Spiral

Dan Graham
Groovy Spiral

2013
Two-way mirror, stainless steel 453 x 731 x 230 cm / 178 x 288 x 90 1/2 in.

Rococo

Dan Graham
Rococo

2012
Perforated Steel, stainless steel, two-way mirror 413 x 502 x 230 cm / 162 1/2 x 197 x 90 1/2 in.

Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Bisected By Perforated Stainless Steel

Dan Graham
Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Bisected By Perforated Stainless Steel

2011-12
Stainless steel, perforated steel and two way mirror 230 x 520 cm / 90 1/2 x 205 in.

Two 2-Way Mirror Ellipses, One Open, One Closed

Dan Graham
Two 2-Way Mirror Ellipses, One Open, One Closed

2011-12
Stainless steel and 2-way mirror, 230 x 350 x 748 cm / 90 1/2 x 138 x 295 in.

Untitled

Dan Graham
Untitled

2011
Two way mirror glass, aluminium, cellulose, MDF 90 x 140 x 71 cm / 35 1/2 x 55 x 28 in.

Untitled

Dan Graham
Untitled

2011
Two way mirror glass, aluminium, cellulose, MDF 107 x 107 x 42 cm / 42 x 42 x 16 1/2 in.

Greek Meander Pavilion, Open Shoji Screen Version

Dan Graham
Greek Meander Pavilion, Open Shoji Screen Version

2001
Two-way mirror glass, stainless steel, oak, PVC 636 x 479 x 209 cm / 250 3/8 x 188 5/8 x 82 1/4 in.

Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out Variation C

Dan Graham
Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out Variation C

1989-2001
Two way mirror glass, plain glass, painted aluminium and stainless steel 205 x 208 cm / 81 x 82 in.

Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out Variation C

Dan Graham
Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut-Out Variation C

1989-2001
Two way mirror glass, plain glass, painted aluminium and stainless steel 205 x 208 cm / 81 x 82 in.

Two-Way Mirror/Hedge Labyrinth

Dan Graham
Two-Way Mirror/Hedge Labyrinth

1989-91
Pencil and watercolour on paper 62 x 53 x 3.8 cm / 24 1/2 x 21 x 1 1/2 in.

Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

Dan Graham
Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

1989
Zinc sprayed steel, two way mirror, clear glass and blue cypress trees 220 x 600 x 900 cm / 87 x 236 x 354 in.

Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

Dan Graham
Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

1989
Zinc sprayed steel, two way mirror, clear glass and blue cypress trees 220 x 600 x 900 cm / 87 x 236 x 354 in.

Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

Dan Graham
Two Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth

1989
Zinc sprayed steel, two way mirror, clear glass and blue cypress trees 220 x 600 x 900 cm / 87 x 236 x 354 in.

Octogon for Munster

Dan Graham
Octogon for Munster

1987
Glass and metal Installation view Munster Sculpture Park

Architectural Drawing for Revolving Door Entrance (1.7.1987)

Dan Graham
Architectural Drawing for Revolving Door Entrance (1.7.1987)

1987
Pencil on paper 51.7 x 41.7 x 3.8 cm / 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 in.

Two Adjacent Pavilions

Dan Graham
Two Adjacent Pavilions

1978-81
Installation view Kröller-Müller Museum, The Netherlands

Back-Yard New Housing Project, Staten Island

Dan Graham
Back-Yard New Housing Project, Staten Island

1978
C-print 78 x 57.5 cm / 31 x 22 1/2 in.

Intention Intentionality Sequence

Dan Graham
Intention Intentionality Sequence

1972
Framed text panels on mount board 102.7 x 75.5cm each / 40 1/2 x 30 in. each

Present Continuous Past(s)

Dan Graham
Present Continuous Past(s)

1974
Installation view, New York

Two Correlated Rotations

Dan Graham
Two Correlated Rotations

1969
Black & white photograph 74 x 86 cm / 29 x 34 in.

Homes for America, Arts Magazine

Dan Graham
Homes for America, Arts Magazine

1966-67
Print 74 x 93 cm / 29 x 37 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Homes for America

Dan Graham
Homes for America

1966-1989
Six framed and signed colour prints Framed: 74 x 68cm / 29 x 27 in.

Exhibitions

  1. Dan Graham: Here's Looking at You - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Here's Looking at You

    21 March – 8 April 2023

  2. Pavilions - past exhibition

    Pavilions

    14 January – 12 February 2022

  3. Dan Graham: Rock 'n' Roll - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Rock 'n' Roll

    3 October – 3 November 2018

  4. Dan Graham: Pavilions - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Pavilions

    21 March – 28 April 2012

  5. Dan Graham: Theatre - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Theatre

    1 April – 9 May 2009

  6. Dan Graham: Performance - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Performance

    12 July – 28 August 2004

  7. Dan Graham: Sculptures/Pavilions - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Sculptures/Pavilions

    12 July – 14 September 2001

  8. Dan Graham: Pavilion Sculptures & Photographs - past exhibition

    Dan Graham: Pavilion Sculptures & Photographs

    9 November 1991 – 8 January 1992

  9. Dan Graham & Sol Lewitt - past exhibition

    Dan Graham & Sol Lewitt

    13 May – 5 June 1986

  10. Dan Graham - past exhibition

    Dan Graham

    9 December 1981 – 9 January 1982

  11. Dan Graham - past exhibition

    Dan Graham

    27 September – 26 October 1974

  12. Dan Graham - past exhibition

    Dan Graham

    25 February – 18 March 1972

Shop

  1. Dan Graham: Not Yet Realised Pavilion Drawings

    Dan Graham: Not Yet Realised Pavilion Draw...

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