“A successfully abstract sculpture will tend to make the space surrounding it abstract too.”
John McCracken
Minimalist artist John McCracken is renowned for his colorful, single tone planks. Composed of varnish, resin, fiberglass and wood, the planks, including the present lot, Untitled, 1974, radiate a sleek and sensual surface. Unique in its distinctly painterly finish, Untitled sits on the floor and leans against the wall, forming a bridge between the ground and the surface upon which it rests. This slanted stance lands the form somewhere between a painting on the wall and a sculpture on the floor. As the artist explains, "I see the plank as existing between two worlds, the floor representing the physical world of standing objects, trees, cars, buildings, [and] human bodies, ... and the wall representing the world of the imagination, illusionist painting space, [and] human mental space" (John McCracken in Thomas Kellein, "Interview with John McCracken, August 1995," John McCracken, Kunsthalle Basel, 1995, pp. 21-39, p. 32). Untitled, 1987 presents a black and dark blue, psychedelic surface. The swirling forms convey a kaleidoscopic scene, resting between the earth and the sky. “I felt that if something was beautiful, one could enjoy looking at it and therefore stand to apprehend the form in a full way—intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually”(John McCracken, interview by Matthew Higgs, Early Sculpture/John McCracken, exh. cat. Zwirner and Wirth, New York, 2005, p. 10).