Biography
The monochrome totem-like sculptures are the signature works of American artist John McCracken. Throughout his career, he has successfully blended the minimalist movement with a distinctive West Coast sensibility. To create a perfect shine and monochrome finish, he used resin and fiberglass to cover the wooden boards. The artist displays them leaning against gallery walls, blurring the lines between sculpture and painting, and viewer and object. Today, McCracken's works are included in numerous private and public collections, including the SMAK Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, to name a few.
John McCracken was born in 1934 in Barkley, California. He enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, from which he earned a BFA in painting. He became a member of the Light and Space movement, formed by renowned artists Larry Bell , James Turrell , and Robert Irwin. Before developing his unique sculptures, the artist was an avid painter. He builds their surfaces on cavities by layering paint and lacquer. These early pieces directly influenced his sculptural technique.
McCracken created his iconic sculptural works in 1966, at a time when many artists were experimenting with combining aspects of painting and sculpture. Instead of a painting, the artist pressed the narrow board with its polished, glossy surface onto it, successfully entering the three-dimensional realm.
In addition to the planks, McCracken also created other free-standing geometric sculptures, all of which varied in shape and size, including tetrahedrons, pyramids, crystals, and ziggurats. The sizes also varied, as he was known for creating large pieces as well as smaller forms on pedestals. The artist also used different materials, polished metals such as bronze and stainless steel, which he carefully polished. The color he saw and used as his material, choosing a bold palette of lemon yellow, ebony, bubblegum pink, and deep sapphire. He rarely used multiple colors, which he poured over the sculpture to create a "molten lava flow."
Throughout the 1960s, the artist exhibited internationally and throughout the United States. The exhibition that immediately attracted public attention was the one (1966) at the Jewish Museum in New York.
In the 1970s and 1980s, John McCracken's popularity waned, and he began teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Nevada, Reno. However, after moving to Los Angeles in 1985, he was discovered by younger generations of artists and art lovers. In 1986, the PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City organized a comprehensive exhibition of his work. In 2021, his work was featured in a group exhibition at David Zwirner in New York City.
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