The American artist Dan Graham, during his visit to Madrid in 2014Samuel Sánchez
Dan Graham, one of the most relevant artists of the last half century, has died this weekend in New York at the age of 79.
This has been confirmed this morning by the Marian Goodman gallery.
Multifaceted in his languages, the American practiced video art, writing, photography and conceptual art in a career that has lasted for more than half a century.
He achieved international fame with the creation in the late seventies of glass and mirror pavilions located in public spaces and conceived as hybrid elements, halfway between sculpture and architecture.
As in many of his other proposals, these constructions with geometric shapes complete their meaning with the presence and participation of the viewer.
In the Sabatini garden of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, his work
De él Dhaka Pavilion
(2008) can be found.
We mourn the passing of American artist Dan Graham.
In the Sabatini Garden of the Museum we can find his work “Dhaka Pavilion” (2008).
pic.twitter.com/O75MEqcN81
– Reina Sofía Museum (@museoreinasofia) February 20, 2022
Born in 1942 Urbana (Illinois), but raised in New Jersey, the artist declared himself self-taught in an interview for
Babelia
in 2019. “I grew up in a Jewish family.
My childhood and adolescence were difficult.
At the age of 13 I dropped out of school.
My father was very abusive and, fleeing from him, I moved to the East Village with a friend.
I educated myself by reading Sartre, Marcuse, Brecht, Lévi-Strauss… ”, he recounted then.
Graham participated in ARCO in 2014 and, in recent decades, his work has been the subject of retrospectives at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing (China), the Metropolitan in New York, the Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC), in whose terrace is another of his works,
Triangular Pavilion
, and in the Fundación Tàpies in Barcelona, among others.
Dan Graham's 'Triangular Pavilion' is a permanent installation that you can visit on the CGAC terrace.
If you are curious to meet her, request it at the museum reception.
Access is possible every Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. (weather permitting) pic.twitter.com/LFIR4EPJg3
– CGAC (@CGACSantiago) March 28, 2021
The American was also a gallery owner, art critic, graphic designer and filmmaker.
His documentary
About Him Rock My Religion
(1984) analyzed the relationship between religion and one of his passions: rock music.
The film connects the story of the Shakers, a primitive religious community that practiced dancing during their rituals, with the rock scene of the time.
