Untitled

- Painting (Painting)

John McCracken

year born: 1934
gender: male
nationality: American
home town: Berkeley, California

Though not strictly representational, some objects in Untitled (1962) are recognizable: a flower, an egg, a foot. The arrows and directional lines suggest movement, but the forms they point to intertwine, prohibiting a straightforward reading. The shapes are as illustrative as a Rorschach inkblot; in their confounding, simple indeterminacy, they depict nothing and everything at once.


Born in Berkeley and educated at California College of the Arts, John McCracken was a pioneer of American Minimalism and is often associated with the Light and Space movement. His plank pieces—high-gloss, lacquered, monochromatic monoliths that lean against the wall—defy the boundary between painting and sculpture, object and viewer. Their bases rest in the observer’s space, and their varnished surfaces reflect the surrounding environment. Though best known for his bright colors and polished aesthetic, McCracken’s body of work is diverse, ranging from minimalist sculpture to abstract painting. The work is consistently characterized by a search for simplicity, beauty, and the sublime.


Colors:



Untitled (Construction)
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Larry Bell

2007

Untitled (Construction) recalls the series of glass cubes that gained Bell international recognition in the 1960s...

VFGY9
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Larry Bell

1979

Like many of Larry Bell’s works, VFGY9 deals primarily with the viewer’s experience of sight...

South Africa Righteous Space
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Hank Willis Thomas

2014

South Africa Righteous Space by Hank Willis Thomas is concerned with history and identity, with the way race and ‘blackness’ has not only been informed but deliberately shaped and constructed by various forces – first through colonialism and slavery, and more recently through mass media and advertising – and reminds us of the financial and economic stakes that have always been involved in representations of race....

Related works featuring themes of: » Abstract Sculpture, » Columns and Totems, » Light and Space Movement, » Line, Form and Color, » American  
» see more

Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
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Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

Sound of Ice Melting
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Paul Kos

1970

Sound of Ice Melting is based on the ancient Zen Buddhist koan about the sound of one hand clapping...

Lightning
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Paul Kos

1976

Parked on the shoulder of a single lane highway running through a desert landscape, Marlene looks over her shoulder from inside the car at a fierce storm looming over a distant horizon...

Deck Painting I
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Alexandre da Cunha

2005

His Deck Painting I recalls the simplistic stripes of conceptual artist Daniel Buren, or the minimal lines of twentieth century abstract painting, but is in reality a readymade, fashioned from repurposed fabric of deck chairs...

Other related works, blended automatically  
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Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
© » KADIST

Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

Sound of Ice Melting
© » KADIST

Paul Kos

1970

Sound of Ice Melting is based on the ancient Zen Buddhist koan about the sound of one hand clapping...

Bunny’s Sofa
© » KADIST

Gimhongsok

2007

To explore the boundaries between artwork and audience, Gimhongsok created a series of sculptural performances in which a person wearing an animal costume poses in the gallery...

West (Flag 1) (Flag 3) (Flag 6)
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Alexandre da Cunha

2011

The series West (Flag 1), West (Flag 3), and West (Flag 6) continues da Cunha’s ongoing exploration of the form’s various vertical, horizontal, and diagonal stripes...

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Illusion of Matter
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Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa

2015

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s performance Illusion of Matter establishes a dream state through a composition of motifs that were drawn from the artist’s childhood memories...

A Look Inside ‘A Love Supreme’ at Chicago’s Elmhurst Art Museum
© » OBSERVER

Review: ‘A Love Supreme’ at Elmhurst Art Museum | Observer Norman Teague...

Deep Inside Sotheby’s $600+m Bet on Macklowe, Part 1
© » ARTMARKETMONITOR

Deep Inside Sotheby’s $600+m Bet on Macklowe, Part 1 When last we left the art market—just a few short weeks ago in London—the story was all about the hunt for new talent with collectors making aggressive bets on the “next big thing” artist...

Fabrice Gygi — Quelques nouvelles…
© » SLASH PARIS

Fabrice Gygi — Quelques nouvelles… — Chantal Crousel Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Fabrice Gygi — Quelques nouvelles… — Chantal Crousel Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Fabrice Gygi — Quelques nouvelles… Exhibition Painting, sculpture Fabrice Gygi, Quelques nouvelles…, exhibition view, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2024)...

Related artist(s) to: John McCracken » Donald Judd, » Bruce Nauman, » Dan Flavin, » Larry Bell, » Sol Lewitt, » Andrea Bellini, » Carl Andre, » Christopher Williams, » Lawrence Weiner, » Rodney Graham  
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Tree on the Former Site of Camera Obscura
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Rodney Graham

1996

Tree on the Former Site of Camera Obscura (1996) belongs to a series of large-scale photographs of trees taken by Graham and depicts a particular species that lives in Northern California...

Ponderosa Pine IV
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Rodney Graham

1991

Ponderosa Pine IV belongs to a series of large-scale photographs of trees taken by Graham and depicts a particular species that live in Northern California...

Untitled (Construction)
© » KADIST

Larry Bell

2007

Untitled (Construction) recalls the series of glass cubes that gained Bell international recognition in the 1960s...

VFGY9
© » KADIST

Larry Bell

1979

Like many of Larry Bell’s works, VFGY9 deals primarily with the viewer’s experience of sight...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
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Ballerina
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Liu Yin

2010

Liu Yin brings the tension of a small but imminent catastrophe into the gallery with a raw egg balanced on the edge of a folding table....

The artist who chronicled a generation lost to AIDS
© » I-D VICE PHOTO

The artist who chronicled a generation lost to AIDS advertisement...

Perspective
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Anna Molska

2006

Perspective was filmed during a residence in northern Poland...