John McCracken

David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of works by American artist John McCracken at the gallery’s 616 North Western Avenue location in Los Angeles, presented on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth. Featuring a selection of the artist’s “planks” and “columns” installed in the round, this is the first solo presentation in McCracken’s longtime hometown in more than twenty years.

In bringing together two of his most enduring sculptural forms, the exhibition illuminates the artist’s nuanced modulation of color, shape, and surface that extended throughout his more than five-decade-long career.

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Image: Installation view, John McCracken, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Location

616 North Western Avenue Los Angeles CA, 90004

Dates

February 28—March 30, 2024

Opening Reception

Wednesday, February 28, 6–8 PM

Gallery Hours

Tues—Sat 10am–6pm

Artist

John McCracken

John McCracken, New Mexico, 1969. © Photo by Joe Goode

John McCracken, New Mexico, 1969. © Photo by Joe Goode

“California culture did of itself offer some inspiration for art, too. The style of the place was sort of willy-nilly creativity.… But the light in Los Angeles does something … that I was able to bounce my ideas off of in my track toward making what I felt in my intuition was possible.”

—John McCracken, 2005

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated December 13, 1975

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated December 13, 1975

McCracken developed his early sculptural work while studying painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While experimenting with increasingly three-dimensional canvases, the artist began to create objects made with industrial materials, including plywood, sprayed lacquer, and pigmented resin, resulting in the highly reflective, smooth surfaces for which he has become known.

John McCracken

Untitled (Red Plank), 1976

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

84 1/8 x 12 x 1 1/4 inches (213.7 x 30.5 x 3.2 cm)

“McCracken has always viewed the objects he makes as metaphorical bridges between different states of reality—what can be seen and touched, and what remains unseen.… Far from Minimalist, [he] is able to assert the seductiveness of material and surface without disallowing association, and to embrace these contradictions.”

—Donna De Salvo, curator, Dia Art Foundation

John McCracken

Untitled, 1982

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

95 x 16 x 2 1/8 inches (241.3 x 40.6 x 5.4 cm)

John McCracken, Untitled, 1982 (detail)

John McCracken, Untitled, 1982 (detail)

In the late 1960s McCracken relocated to LA, where he remained a fixture of the burgeoning art scene there through the early 1990s, when he moved to Santa Fe. His work—which has been uniquely influential to subsequent generations of artists—came to represent a distinctively West Coast take on the ascendant minimalist aesthetic coming out of New York in those years.

John McCracken near his studio in New Mexico, 1996

John McCracken near his studio in New Mexico, 1996

“The overwhelming, vivifying circumstance upon which this work was founded is the status and light and space in the American Southwest as a benign presence rather than a stark absence.… The particulate desert and ocean that pervaded this atmosphere is illuminated from above and below, presenting itself to our eyes as a palpable presence. In the West … light is a thing, a local truth.”

—Dave Hickey, critic

John McCracken

Link, 2000

Polyester resin, fiber glass, and wood

91 1/4 x 15 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (231.8 x 38.7 x 7.0 cm)

In opposition to the industrially produced, non-referential objects that their East Coast peers were producing, McCracken and his contemporaries offered sculptures made from synthetic materials, such as plastic and fiberglass, and highly finished surfaces, often in combination with light and luminescent shades of color that brought to mind the dappled California sun, LA’s vibrant cars and surfboards, or a multitude of other points of reference.

John McCracken in Santa Barbara, c. 1980

John McCracken in Santa Barbara, c. 1980

John McCracken in Santa Barbara, c. 1980

John McCracken in Santa Barbara, c. 1980

“In their indifference to conventional concerns such as harmony and balance, [the planks] throw the viewer off. Yet their high craftsmanship clearly differentiates them from the world of ordinary things by emphasizing the degree of care that has been lavished upon them; it works to force an aesthetic evaluation rather than a mere acceptance of them as non-functional objects of the ordinary environment.”

—Barbara Rose, critic and art historian

John McCracken

Untitled, 1982

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

93 x 15 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (236.2 x 39.4 x 4.4 cm)

Installation view, John McCracken, Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 1995

Installation view, John McCracken, Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 1995

John McCracken

Black Plank, 1988

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

94 x 14 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches (238.8 x 37.5 x 3.2 cm)

Though sleek in their highly glossed appearance, McCracken’s own geometric forms were hand-crafted, meticulously constructed from plywood coated with fiberglass and layers of pigmented polyester resin and taken to a high polish, so much so that they in part reflect the world around them.

John McCracken

Aqua, 2002

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

92 1/8 x 14 x 3 7/8 inches (234 x 35.6 x 9.8 cm)

John McCracken in his studio, c. 1989

John McCracken in his studio, c. 1989

Color was an integral element of McCracken’s practice. The artist mixed the color of each of these works by hand, keeping careful notes on his recipes and whether he felt they were successful. The majority of his planks were made in a monochromatic finish, however the artist considered similar or even identical forms executed in differing hues to be entirely individuated artworks that engage with their surroundings in a distinct way.

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated 1965

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated 1965

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated January 20, 1966

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated January 20, 1966

“Roughly the size of a plank of lumber, the leaning pieces were so casual as to seem like jokes, except that their intense hues and flawless surfaces projected dignity and beauty; they often seemed to be made of solid color, but also had a totemic presence.”

—Roberta Smith, chief critic, The New York Times

Installation view, John McCracken, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Installation view, John McCracken, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

John McCracken

Wave, 2004

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

96 x 30 x 16 inches (243.8 x 76.2 x 40.6 cm)

John McCracken

Chieftain, 1992

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

96 1/8 x 29 7/8 x 17 inches (244.2 x 75.9 x 43.2 cm)

McCracken’s columns explore the phenomenological relationship between work, viewer, and architecture through their outsized stature. Each standing around eight feet in height, these rectangular or faceted forms conjure a range of everyday and otherworldly associations. The viewer is able to see themselves and their surroundings fully reflected back in these surfaces.

John McCracken, Chieftain, 1992 (detail)

John McCracken, Chieftain, 1992 (detail)

John McCracken

Be, 2004

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

94 x 17 x 19 inches (238.8 x 43.2 x 48.3 cm)

“The column sculptures developed partly from McCracken’s preoccupation with ancient Greek and Egyptian architecture, and from his association of strong vertical forms with a combination of optimism and ethical rectitude, or ‘heroic stance,’ as he coined it.”

—Robin Clark, art historian

McCracken in his studio with Copernicus, 1988

McCracken in his studio with Copernicus, 1988

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated September 15, 1971

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated September 15, 1971

John McCracken

Cosmos, 2001

Lacquer, polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

92 1/2 x 20 x 11 1/2 inches (235 x 50.8 x 29.2 cm)

“Even today, the works … look brand new, as if they were just made. To experience them, to be immediately aware of the untouchable, otherwordly radiance, is to be aware of nothing but the absolute present.”

—Frances Colpitt, art historian

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated January 12, 1972

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated January 12, 1972

John McCracken

Diamond, 2006

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood in eight (8) parts

Each: 37 x 5 x 6 1/2 inches (94 x 12.7 x 16.5 cm)
Overall: 37 x 192 x 6 1/2 inches (94 x 487.7 x 16.5 cm)

Finally, the exhibition also features one of McCracken’s multipart wall reliefs. Executed in 2006, the work exists in the interstices of painting and sculpture. Here, the artist presents eight evenly spaced, monochromatic rectangular components across a wall. The work's title, Diamond, reinforces the synesthetic link between color, form, and image.

John McCracken, Diamond, 2006 (detail)

John McCracken, Diamond, 2006 (detail)

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated April 24, 1972

From the artist’s sketchbook, dated April 24, 1972

“I went kind of full tilt with my ideas. I was purely inventing as much as I was thinking, but I was mainly trying to make things that had a strong existence. They had to be interesting, beautiful, have the right scale and bearing, and have obvious, convincing being.… If that were achieved, then the sculpture, the work, would be able to speak for itself.”

—John McCracken, 2005

Installation view, John McCracken, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Installation view, John McCracken, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Inquire About Works by John McCracken

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

An installation view of the exhibition, John McCracken, at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, dated 2024.

John McCracken

Untitled, 1976

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

84 x 12 x 1 1/4 inches (213.4 x 30.5 x 3.2 cm)

John McCracken

Untitled (Red Plank), 1976

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

84 1/8 x 12 x 1 1/4 inches (213.7 x 30.5 x 3.2 cm)

John McCracken

Untitled, 1982

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

95 x 16 x 2 1/8 inches (241.3 x 40.6 x 5.4 cm)

John McCracken

Cordella, 1988-1992

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

95 x 11 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (241.3 x 29.2 x 3.2 cm)

John McCracken

Silver, 2006

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

93 1/8 x 17 x 3 3/4 inches (236.5 x 43.2 x 9.5 cm)

John McCracken

Link, 2000

Polyester resin, fiber glass, and wood

91 1/4 x 15 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (231.8 x 38.7 x 7.0 cm)

John McCracken

Untitled, 2011

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

100 x 15 x 2 inches (254 x 38.1 x 5.1 cm)

John McCracken

Aqua, 2002

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

92 1/8 x 14 x 3 7/8 inches (234 x 35.6 x 9.8 cm)

John McCracken

Untitled, 1982

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

93 x 15 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (236.2 x 39.4 x 4.4 cm)

John McCracken

Untitled, 2011

Stainless steel

93 3/4 x 14 5/8 x 1 3/8 inches (238.1 x 37.1 x 3.5 cm)

John McCracken

Black Plank, 1988

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

94 x 14 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches (238.8 x 37.5 x 3.2 cm)

John McCracken

Be, 2004

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

94 x 17 x 19 inches (238.8 x 43.2 x 48.3 cm)

John McCracken

Cosmos, 2001

Lacquer, polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

92 1/2 x 20 x 11 1/2 inches (235 x 50.8 x 29.2 cm)

John McCracken

Wave, 2004

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

96 x 30 x 16 inches (243.8 x 76.2 x 40.6 cm)

John McCracken

Siskiyou, 1988

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

96 x 27 x 14 inches (243.8 x 68.6 x 35.6 cm)

John McCracken

Chieftain, 1992

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

96 1/8 x 29 7/8 x 17 inches (244.2 x 75.9 x 43.2 cm)

John McCracken

Form, 2006

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

89 x 17 x 11 inches (226.1 x 43.2 x 27.9 cm)

John McCracken

Hotshot, 2006

Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood

92 x 17 x 12 inches (233.7 x 43.2 x 30.5 cm)

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