North Dakota (Moonrise at Garage)

2005

Not on view

Paul Graham is a connoisseur of unremarkable moments—what he calls "sputtering pieces of time." His elliptical views of a North Dakota truck stop evince this idiosyncratic way of seeing, which invests everyday encounters with an x-factor of grace. In this group of pictures, made during a rambling tour of the US which inspired a set of photobooks, Graham guides us around an empty parking lot, finding snatches of glamour in the shimmering blacktop and dusky sky. Squint, and the fluorescent lights of the filling station twinkle overhead. If most other works from this series attend to the small-scale dramas of American inequality, here the British photographer allows him to be incrementally seduced by a cinematic myth of the western states, all diesel, chrome, and open roads. Nothing much happens in these pictures, but it hardly matters; as Graham has asked, "Why is everyone addicted to prepackaged spectacular moments? There is so much more to the flow of life all around us."

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: North Dakota (Moonrise at Garage)
Artist: Paul Graham (British, born 1956)
Date: 2005
Medium: Inkjet prints
Dimensions: 2021.338a: Image: 18 3/8 x 25 3/4 inches; Frame: 19 3/8 x 26 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches
2021.338b: Image: 15 x 21 inches; Frame: 15 7/8 x 21 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches
2021.338c: Image: 17 x 23 3/4 inches; Frame: 17 7/8 x 24 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches
2021.338d: Image: 20 x 28 inches; Frame: 21 x 29 x 1 1/2 inches
2021.338e: Image: 17 x 23 3/4 inches; Frame: 17 7/8 x 21 7/8 x 1/2 inches
2021.338f: Image: 15 x 21 inches; Frame: 15 7/8 x 21 7/8 x 1/2 inches
2021.338g: Image: 22 x 30 3/4 inches; Frame: 23 x 31 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of Milly and Arne Glimcher, 2021
Object Number: 2021.388a–g
Rights and Reproduction: © Paul Graham
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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