John McCracken

John McCracken ( born December 9, 1934 in Berkeley, California, † April 8, 2011 in New York City, New York) was an American artist of minimalism. Along with Robert Irwin, Larry Bell and James Turrell, he is one of the main representatives of the so-called West Coast minimalists.

Work

McCracken objects are characterized by a reduction in the simplest geometric shapes and surfaces in a bright monochrome colors. With its large-scale specular sculptures, he belongs to a group of sculptors who developed in the mid-60s in California a colored by the local Car Culture, something playful variation of Minimal Art. The spiritual sensibility of the objects, McCracken's use of pure geometric form and pure color are considered clear abstract expressive qualities, akin to the " supremacists " by Malevich, Mondrian and Kandinsky as well.

McCracken's work has been exhibited regularly since the 60s, including the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Art in Ghent (2004-2005) and at Hauser & Wirth in Zurich (2005, with Paul McCarthy). He also participated in important group exhibitions such as Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York and Los Angeles Five sculptors in the Gallery of the University of California at Irvine (both 1966), and A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles ( 2004) part. Some of his works, including small -scale paintings were shown at Documenta 12 in Kassel 2007.

He lived and worked in New Mexico (USA).