Dan Graham. Schema (March 1966)

Dan Graham

Schema (March 1966)

1966–70

Fifteen sheets of printed paper and paper with felt-tip pen, colored pencil, pencil, typewriting, and ballpoint pen on colored paper-faced board

Not on view

For Schema (March 1966) Graham used the physical structure and context of printed pages in publications to craft a series of “poems.” Its panels comprise pages of Graham’s contributions to artists’ books, exhibition catalogues, and periodicals or his notes for unpublished texts. These “poems” define the composition and its contextual surroundings, giving shape to an open–ended yet highly defined structure. As Graham described Schema:

It is completely self-referential. Instead of relating to the white cube of the gallery, the work involves the “materiality” of its own self-referring information. As magazine information is disposable, the pages defeated the monetary aura of gallery art and also had the virtue of positioning art in a popular and publicly accessible domain. Placing work in the context of the magazine page allowed it to be read in juxtaposition to art criticism, art reviews, and art magazine reproductions of art objects installed in exhibition spaces.

Gallery label from

There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage’s 4’33”, October 12, 2013–June 22, 2014.

Medium Fifteen sheets of printed paper and paper with felt-tip pen, colored pencil, pencil, typewriting, and ballpoint pen on colored paper-faced board
Dimensions Each: 20 1/2 x 16 1/2" (52.1 x 41.9 cm)
Credit Partial gift of the Daled Collection and partial purchase through the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Agnes Gund, Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley
Object number 563.2011.a-o
Department Drawings and Prints

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