John McCracken (1934-2011)

“Yes, I purposefully looked at a lot of cars, especially the finely finished ones, to see colors and surfaces…The first sculptures I made were of plywood sprayed with car lacquers…Finally, through experiments, I realized that if you pour a thickness of resin onto a flat surface, it pools out and you can get a really flat surface. I make real, physical forms, but they’re made out of color, which as a quality is at the outset abstract. I try to use color as if it were material.” (J. McCracken in F. Colpitt, “Between Two Worlds” in Art in America, April 1998, p. 88).

“My works are minimal and reduced, but also maximal. I try to make them concise, clear statements in three-dimensional form, and also to take them to a breathtaking level of beauty.” – John McCracken