One of contemporary art’s most innovative figures, Dan Graham has been at the forefront of numerous artistic developments since the 1960s, from the rise of conceptualism and minimalism to video and performance to explorations of architecture and the culture of rock and roll. His rejection of the high-seriousness of modern art emerged at the same moment as Pop art, and the fluid, democratic quality of his work continues to exert a powerful influence on younger generations.
This ground-breaking retrospective, the first in the U.S., showcases Graham’s expansive body of work—including his innovations with video and performance, glass-and-mirror pavilions that play off architecture and public spaces, and magazine projects, as well as media installations, prints, drawings, photographs, and writing. In tracing the evolution of Graham’s work across its major stages, the exhibition highlights persistent underlying motifs and concerns—most notably, the changing relationship of individual to society, as filtered through American mass media and architecture.
Dan Graham: Beyond comes to the Walker following presentations at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (February 15 – May 25, 2009) and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art (June 25 – October 11, 2009). A fully illustrated scholarly catalogue with major essays by exhibition co-curators Chrissie Iles (Whitney) and Bennett Simpson (MOCA), and many others, is available in the Walker Shop.
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