'Minimal' artist Dan Graham dies

The polyhedral artist Dan Grahamwhose work has been related to the art Minimum and conceptualconsidered one of the great American creators of the last century, he died at the age of 79 years in New York. His work is articulated in a multiplicity of formats and supports, among which coexist installation, video, music, drawing, performance, cinema, photography, magazines and, above all, architecture. Also a writer, sculptor, art, music and architecture critic, his work reflects on the communicative capacity and individual and collective perception of art.

Born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1942, he grew up in New Jersey and educated himself after high school, reading Margaret Mead, Claude Lévi-Strauss, the critical literature of Leslie Fiedler, and the French Nouveau Roman. He began his artistic career in 1964, at the age of 22, when he founded the John Daniels Gallery in New York, where he exhibited works by Carl André, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Robert Smithson and Dan Flavin. A year later, he began creating his own conceptual pieces, photographs and numerological sequences, printed mainly in magazines such as figurative (1965) and Scheme (1966).

After this, Graham expanded his practical conceptual development with performancecinema, video and sculpture, including documentary Rock my religion (1984), in which he analyzes the relationship between religion and one of his great passions: rock. His work was greatly influenced by the social change of the Civil Rights Movement. in the United States, the Vietnam War, the women's liberation movement and other cultural changes.

A large part of his production focuses on reflection on the perceptual and philosophical structures put into play by spectators when observing his works, which is why his work has also been framed along the lines of what is conventionally called behavioral art or behavioral art. One of the materials I frequently worked with was mirrored glass, reflective on one side and transparent on the other. This element gave rise to one of the most recognizable structures of this artist's style, the Pavilions, where he began working in 1978. These spaces, created to be displayed outdoors, function both as sculptures and as architectural enclosures that eventually support different uses, such as shelter, greenhouse or children's playroom.

One of these pavilions Dhaka Pavilion (2008), is installed in the Sabatini Garden of the Reina Sofía Art Center, which allows the visitor to observe themselves through their reflections as object and subject at the same time and delve into the changing notions of interior and exterior, urban and natural, individual and collective. Another of these works triangular pavilionis on display at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea.

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