Artist: John McCracken
Venue: Castello di Rivoli, Turin
Date: February 22 – June 19, 2011
Images courtesy of Castello di Rivoli, Turin
Press Release:
The Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to present the largest retrospective to date of the American artist John McCracken (b. 1934, Berkeley, California. Lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico).
Among the leading historic exponents of the American Minimalism, together with Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, and other, John McCracken views art as a means of aesthetic and spiritual emancipation and his works are as prototypes for a world to come, one dominated by pure thought and an absolute form of beauty. Convinced that art can give form to a hidden dimension of matter and the universe, reawakening consciousness and enriching our live, McCracken, through the uniqueness of his artistic vision, reveals the true complexity of what we generically call “Minimalism”.
John McCracken became famous for what he refers to as “blocks, slabs, columns, planks. Basic beautiful forms, neutral forms.” The starting point for his “neutral form” is a minimalist object or primary structure, such as a cube or a board. Built out of plywood, and subsequently covered with fiberglass and polyester resin imbued with a vivid color, the neutral form transforms into an object that brilliantly combines the anti-illusionism of Minimalism, the colorful effects of car culture, and the idea of an immaterial mental space. Known primarily for these sculptures, McCracken has only recently received attention for his 1970s Mandala paintings, which has led to a new valorization of his oeuvre.
