John McCracken
Don't Tell Me When to Stop1967

On view:

Geffen Galleries, The Stuff of Alchemy: Plastic in Art

Tall, narrow trapezoidal panel in flat tomato-red, leaning against a white gallery wall, with a smooth matte surface and slight wedge shape

Tall, narrow rectangular panel in solid fluorescent orange with a lavender-painted edge, leaning slightly against a white gallery wall.

Artist or Maker: John McCracken
United States, California, Berkeley, 1934-2011
Title: Don't Tell Me When to Stop
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1967
Medium: Polyester resin, fiberglass and plywood
Dimensions: 120 1/4 x 20 1/4 x 3 in. (305.44 x 51.44 x 7.62 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Kleiner Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.38.13
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: McCracken was one of the most celebrated exponents of “finish fetish,” a specifically Southern California aesthetic that emerged in the 1960s. It emphasizes meticulous craftsmanship, high-key colors, and dazzling light effects. With monolithic geometric forms—singly or in pairs—McCracken examined the effect of color and shape on the viewer’s perception. He built the armatures of his fiberglass-and-plywood sculptures by hand and typically applied between twenty and thirty coats of a single color, which he then polished to yield a highly reflective, lustrous surface that registers even minute changes in the surrounding environment.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Barron, Stephanie, S. Bernstein and I. S. Fort, with essays by Stephanie Barron, Sherri Bernstein, M. Dear, Howard N. Fox and Richard Rodriguez. Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Berkeley: University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000.
Tuchman, Maurice. The Kleiner Foundation: Gift of Contemporary Art. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
A Focus on California: Selections from the Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Zelevansky, Lynn, V. L. Hillings, M. Peternák, B. LaBelle, P. Frank, I. Katzenstein, A. Le Blanc. Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Copyright: © John McCracken Estate

John McCracken
Don't Tell Me When to Stop1967

On view:

Geffen Galleries, The Stuff of Alchemy: Plastic in Art

Artist or Maker: John McCracken
United States, California, Berkeley, 1934-2011
Title: Don't Tell Me When to Stop
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1967
Medium: Polyester resin, fiberglass and plywood
Dimensions: 120 1/4 x 20 1/4 x 3 in. (305.44 x 51.44 x 7.62 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Kleiner Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.38.13
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: McCracken was one of the most celebrated exponents of “finish fetish,” a specifically Southern California aesthetic that emerged in the 1960s. It emphasizes meticulous craftsmanship, high-key colors, and dazzling light effects. With monolithic geometric forms—singly or in pairs—McCracken examined the effect of color and shape on the viewer’s perception. He built the armatures of his fiberglass-and-plywood sculptures by hand and typically applied between twenty and thirty coats of a single color, which he then polished to yield a highly reflective, lustrous surface that registers even minute changes in the surrounding environment.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Barron, Stephanie, S. Bernstein and I. S. Fort, with essays by Stephanie Barron, Sherri Bernstein, M. Dear, Howard N. Fox and Richard Rodriguez. Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Berkeley: University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000.
Tuchman, Maurice. The Kleiner Foundation: Gift of Contemporary Art. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
A Focus on California: Selections from the Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Zelevansky, Lynn, V. L. Hillings, M. Peternák, B. LaBelle, P. Frank, I. Katzenstein, A. Le Blanc. Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.