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POMERANZ COLLECTION

JOHN McCRACKEN

Starlight
1993
Polyester resin, fibreglass, plywood
12,4 x 92,4 x 23,5 cm
Inv. Nr. 12

Born in 1934 in Berkeley, California, USA
Died in 2011 in New York City, New York, USA

Influenced by his Southern California environment, Minimal artist John McCracken has applied in his sculptural work, since the mid-sixties, the industrial techniques used in surfboard construction, including plywood, sprayed lacquer, and pigmented resin, creating highly reflective surfaces. He uses the physicality of this medium through series of geometric and minimalist forms such as planks leaning against walls, wall pieces and freestanding sculptures in varying geometrical shapes and sizes. The unique quality of McCracken’s work is characterized by its capacity to relate to the physical world, while transcending it at the same time. The bold and extreme colours he uses are both intensified and obliterated by the sculpture’s reflective surfaces, which make the colour, and with that the form, almost translucent, fluid and intangible. The outside form then seems to dissolve into the inner space of the work. This elusive and ambiguous quality becomes an essential theme in all his work, making his sculpture an extremely balanced and almost lyrical combination of opposites.