Dan Graham, influential Postwar conceptual artist, dies at 79

Dan Graham, a conceptual artist known for his pavilions exploring perception, space, and time, died at 79 on February 19, 2022, just weeks before his 80th birthday on March 31. Active since the 1960s as a critic, curator, and gallery director, Graham founded the Daniels Gallery in New York (1964–1965), where he hosted Sol LeWitt's first solo show and exhibitions by minimalists Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Robert Smithson. He began making art in the 1970s, using performance and video to examine the relationship between artwork and viewer. His works often incorporated cameras, mirrors, and video, as in 'Time Delayed Room' (1975), where two rooms connected by closed-circuit cameras transmitted images with an 8-second delay, disorienting audiences. In the 1980s and 1990s, he created his signature pavilions—steel-and-glass structures in public spaces that blurred sculpture and architecture. In 2014, he installed 'Two way mirror/Hedge Arabesque' at the Zegna headquarters in Trivero, Italy, praising the site's natural setting. Major retrospectives include the De Pont Museum (2014), MOCA Los Angeles, Whitney Museum, Walker Art Center (2009), and Castello di Rivoli (2006). He participated in multiple Venice Biennales (1976, 2003–2005), documenta editions (V–X, 1972–1997), and Skulptur Projekte Münster (1987, 1997). In 2010, he received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.