John McCracken

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John McCracken (born December 9, 1934 in Berkeley , California , † April 8, 2011 in New York City , New York ) was an American artist of minimalism . Along with Robert Irwin , Larry Bell and James Turrell, he is one of the main representatives of the so-called West Coast minimalists .

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McCracken's objects are characterized by a reduction to the simplest geometric shapes and surfaces in a luminous monochrome color scheme. With his large, reflective sculptures, he belongs to a group of sculptors who developed a somewhat playful variation of Minimal Art in California in the mid-1960s, colored by the local car culture . The spiritual sensitivity of the objects, McCracken's use of pure geometric form and pure color are regarded as clearly abstract expressive qualities, related to the “Suprematists” around Malevich, but also Mondrian and Kandinsky.

McCracken's work has been exhibited regularly since the 1960s, including at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent (2004–2005) and at Hauser & Wirth in Zurich (2005, together with Paul McCarthy). He also took part in major group shows such as Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York and Five Los Angeles Sculptors at the University of California Gallery in Irvine (both 1966), and A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958–1968 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2004). Some of his works, including small-format paintings, were shown at documenta 12 in Kassel 2007.

He lived and worked in Santa Fe , New Mexico (USA) since 1994 .

Individual evidence

  1. Christopher Knight : Obituary: John McCracken dies at 76; contemporary artist made geometric sculptures. In: Los Angeles Times . April 10, 2011, accessed May 2, 2011 .

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