the images in a strategic design within the article.
The photographs and text are arranged in long
rows, which mime the conditions of tract housing.
At one of his earliest exhibitions, at the Finch Col-
lege Museum of Art, New York, the photographs
were featured as a slide projector presentation.
Following theHomes for Americaproject, Dan
Graham created a diverse oeuvre of artwork and
theory. He began by using commonly available
resources such as advertising, music, and television,
to communicate a critical art perspective. One of his
most notable examples of this type is a work titled,
‘‘Figurative.’’ Here, Graham documented a strip of
paper from a calculator or cash register. The paper
has a series of unrelated numbers in a consecutive
series. Graham printed the strip of paper next to text
that read ‘‘Figurative by Dan Graham,’’ and the
work was displayed in an issue of Bazaar magazine
by means of his purchasing space as an advertise-
ment. Here, Graham played on the viewers’ expecta-
tions for commercial imagery. The intention of the
artist seems incomprehensible, save for that of pro-
voking the viewer of the magazine into a re-consid-
eration of the validity of mass-produced imagery.
The use of photography to accompany other art
projects is very important to Graham. He has made
many site-specific structures and installations. The
site-specific works he makes are typically temporary.
The photograph plays an important role in making a
recordoftheeventandwork.Thisapproachcompares
to the work of Robert Smithson, a contemporary to
Graham in the 1960s and 1970s who created large site-
specific conceptual works that were temporary and
unavailable to most except through photographs.
The photograph becomes the manner in which many
people experience the work, and thus its simplicity is
duetothefactthatitisexpectedtoserveasafactual,
objective document that can communicate a more
complex, frequently subjective work of art.
Grahamhasalsousedfilmandvideosincethe1970s
for installations and performance works that actively
engage the viewer. He frequently poses experiences of
simultaneous subjectivity and objectivity, playing
with notions of time, and of private and public space.
Hisdeconstructionoftheexperienceofviewingarthas
involved closed-circuit video systems within architec-
tural spaces. Using mirrors and surveillance, Graham
suggests the experience of being viewed while one is
also viewing.The transmission of an idea through the
structure of information is frequently important to
Graham. While he spends considerable time con-
structing his elaborate installations and video works,
healsoproducesagreatamountoftheoreticalwriting,
which accompanies the works and has equal if
not greater importance. Issues of contemporary social
phenomena preoccupy Graham and his writing. He
has produced conceptual theoretical essays on punk
music,suburbia,andpublicarchitecture.Hisworkisa
product and also critique of a mass-mediated society.
His photographs and artwork frequently function
within mass media or in dialog with those systems.
RachelWard
Seealso:Becher, Bernd and Hilla; Conceptual Pho-
tography; Farm Security Administration; Walker,
EvansBiography
Born in Urbana, Illinois, 1942. His work is part of the col-
lections at Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris; and The Tate Gallery, London. Ac-
knowledged by Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation
Award, 1992; Skowhegan Medal for Mixed Media, Sko-
whegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York,
1992; and others. He lives and works in New York.Individual Exhibitions
1969 John Daniels Gallery, New York, New York
1971 Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art
and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia
1972 Lisson Gallery, London, England
Protech-Rivkin Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Galleria Toselli, Milan, Italy
1973 Galerie MTL, Brussels, Belgium
Gallery A 402, California Institute of the Arts, Valen-
cia, California
Gallery Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany
1974 Galerie 17, Paris, France
Royal College of Art, London, England
Performance and Films, Epson School of Art, Surrey,
England
1975 Lucio Amelio, Modern Art Agency, Naples, Italy
John Gibson Gallery, New York, New York
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
InternationalCulturalCentrum,ICC,Antwerp,Belgium
Otis Art Institute Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1976 New Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art, London,
England
1977 Video-Architecture Projects, Photographs,GalerieRene
Block, Berlin, Germany
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Nether-
lands
Video Piece for Two Glass Buildings, Leeds Polytechnic
Gallery, Leeds, England
1978 Corps Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England
1979 Architectural Models and Photographs, Galerie Paola
Betti, Milan, Italy
1980 Gallery Projections, Architectural Proposals, Photo-
graphs, Galerie Ru ̈diger Scho ̈ttle, Munich, Germany
Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1981 Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois
Two Viewing Rooms, Museum of Modern Art, New
York, New YorkGRAHAM, DAN