Lot 23 | Dan Graham | Sunset to Sunrise

GRAHAM, DAN
1942 Urbana/Illinois - 1922 New York

Title: Sunset to Sunrise.
Technique: 136 C-prints.
Mounting: laid down on 18 long cards.
Depiction Size: C-prints each: 7,5 x 11,5cm, total measurements: 137 x 91cm.
Notation: Each: numbered on verso within the work. One card signed and titled.


The work is numbered from 1-19. Card 9 is missing.

Provenance:
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin (directly from artist)

New York State of Mind
The American conceptual artist Dan Graham, who is known for his three-dimensional, mirrored pavilions, extends his work from sculpture, architecture, video, performance and photography to documentations of rock music with, among others, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. As a self-taught artist, he opened the John Daniels Gallery in New York in December 1964 with two friends. Alongside Robert Smithson and Dan Flavin, the first solo exhibition of Sol LeWitt is also presented, but the gallery closes in June 1965. Graham turned to art, initially publishing his photographic works in magazines. He was able to realize his first video works and performances from 1969 as a guest lecturer at the Novia Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Canada.

King and Graham
In 1967, Dan Graham met König in New York and the two went on to collaborate on numerous projects. Two years later, König and his brother Walther published the catalog "Dan Graham: Selected Works 1965-1972". In 1976, the conceptual artist received a one-year DAAD scholarship on König's recommendation, in 1981 his works were presented in König's exhibition "Westkunst", in 1987 he realized a pavilion for "Skulptur Projekte Münster" and in 1993 he taught as a guest professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, of which König was the director.

The endless, heavenly space
The photographic work "Sunset to Sunrise" is based on a video work of the same name realized in Halifax in 1969. A permanently moving camera films the sunset in a spiral-like upward movement to document the surface of the sky. The next morning, a recording is made at the same position in a spiral running from top to bottom, finally capturing the sunrise on the horizon. The spatiality of the sky is mapped in multiple shots, whereby space is defined here as movement in time. The change from day to night and the progression of passing clouds enable the experience of spatiality.