Two Families in Front of New Houses, Staten Island, New York, 1967; "Model House" Bedroom, Staten Island, N.Y., 1967

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© Generali Foundation Collection—Permanent Loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Repro: Werner Kaligofsky

Dan Graham

Two Families in Front of New Houses, Staten Island, New York, 1967; "Model House" Bedroom, Staten Island, N.Y., 1967, 1967

"Homes for America"

Photo montage 2 color photographs, (26.9 x 34.8 cm and 23.9 x 34.8 cm), mounted on cardboard, framed 89.3 x 65.2 x 3,5 cm

GF0000308.00.0-1997

Artwork text

From the mid-1960s to the late-1970s, Graham shot photographs of typical, one-family homes in ordinary American suburbs. These photographs were premiered in 1966 as a slide show in the exhibition “Projected Art” at Finch College Museum of Art, New York. That same year Graham designed his photo-text essay “Homes for America,” which addressed the issue of such housing developments as a new form of urban living. In this work, designed as a magazine article, Graham examined the potential variations of serial housing styles and colors. Originally the work was to be published in a major magazine such as Esquire. At the end of 1966, a mutilated version was published in Arts Magazine. The accompanying text was given priority and most of the photographs were cut out. In the 1960s, Graham saw the medium of the magazine as an appropriate forum for his works, which were situated outside established art institutions. In his photographs, Graham intentionally ignores certain techniques and uses cheap, standard color prints in a “photo journalist” style. (Sabine Breitwieser)

Lending history
2014 Tilburg, NL, De Pont museum voor hedendaagse kunst 2005 Munich, DE, Haus der Kunst 2005 Graz, AT, Kunsthaus am Landesmuseum Joanneum 2001 Siegen, DE, Museum für Gegenwartskunst e.V.