John McCracken

The first complete catalog on John McCracken’s work, including critical essays, an interview with the artist, and a chronology detailing his long career. This catalog presents fifty historic works beginning from the 1960s which have rarely been shown in public.??McCracken?was an internationally famous American artist, known for his unusual and visionary approach to trends in the Minimalism and Finish Fetish art movements which developed in the United States at the beginning of the 1960s.
He made "minimalist, spiritual, enigmatic, irresistibly beautiful" sculptures and paintings. McCracken is known principally for what he defines as "blocks, slabs, columns, planks. Basic, beautiful forms, neutral forms." The starting point for such "neutral forms" is the minimalist object or primary structure such as the cube or plank. Made in plywood and then covered in fibreglass and polyester resin and lacquered in bold colours, the neutral forms transform into objects that knowingly bring together Minimal Art trends with the colours of the automobile industry and the idea of a mental and immaterial space. McCracken, while famous mainly for his minimalist sculptures,?also completed his rarely-seen Mandala cycle of paintings in the 1970's.? These will also be included inthis retrospective.??????????

Daniel Baumann is an art historian and independent curator. Andrea Bellini is the new director of the Castello di Rivoli.