John McCracken (1934-2011)

Christie's is pleased to present three rare early paintings by the renowned Southern California artist John McCracken. Today celebrated for his brightly-hued abstract sculptures in which he applied a lighter Pop-sensibility to the hard-edge Minimalist aesthetic, McCracken began his career as a painter. His works are dynamic juxtapositions of varied patterns, colors and forms influenced by the light, the highway-traversed landscape and the bold, commercial signage of Los Angeles. In this inspiration McCracken was in-step with his contemporary and fellow LA-based painter, Ed Ruscha. While afterwards concentrating his creative energies on sculpture, McCracken never felt he abandoned the concerns and nuances of painting. The sleek surfaces of his works are vibrant, combining sensual tactility and saturated color in a manner that is particularly painterly. The artist himself described his sculptures as, "...perhaps as much 'painting' as they are 'sculpture.'" (The artist quoted in John McCracken, exh. cat., Milan, 2011, p. 192.) The following three works, acquired from the artist and in the same private collection ever since, offer the exceptional opportunity to discover the essential beginnings of one of Southern California's foremost creative forces.