Rodney Graham

Canadian artist Rodney Graham strolls in his works through the landscape of Modernism. On his meandering itinerary through photography, literature, music, art, film, psychology, and linguistics, we encounter Richard Wagner, Stéphane Mallarmé, Edgar Allen Poe, Sigmund Freud, and Donald Judd – not to mention the prevalent myths of cinema and popular music. The contradictions engendered thereby – between conceptual gravity and humorous play, reverential homage and scenarized self-presentation, cultural readymades and a sense of connectedness to nature – betray the profile of a contemporary melancholic. Now for the first time, Dorothea Zwirner’s introduction to Rodney Graham’s complete works – including a representative selection of works with artist’s commentary – offers a broad monographic overview.