A self-proclaimed "troubled teen addicted to Sartre," Nausea, in particular, Dan Graham has built a career around his off-center ideas about self-perception. A self-taught artist who never attended college, Graham considers himself a writer who also makes things. His work in an array of media, including print, film and video, sculpture, and architectural structures can now be seen in a retrospective that opens tomorrow at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Dan Graham, at left, tells it like it is at the Whitney. Center: Things are not what they seem. Right: The author, now and just past. Photos: Peggy Roalf

Starting in the early 1960s when New York began taking the lead as the art center of the world through Abstract Expressionism (including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning among others), Graham was among the young artists who came up with new art forms that were critical of the establishment. Using ordinary materials like house paint, cheap cameras and photocopies, their work soon became known as Conceptual Art. At the preview today, Graham said that critics hated their work; even fellow artist Sol LeWitt said that it should be used as firewood.

Graham first became known for his "magazine pages," which were anti-consumerist visual statements that he ran in magazines for the price of an advertising page. Next came Homes for America, an index of suburban tract houses he made with an Instamatic camera and also published as a magazine page. He had come up with something new - the subject was banal, it embodied cultural commentary, mass circulation, advertising, and it disdained craft through the cheap drugstore prints he used for reproduction.

At the same time, Graham and his contemporaries were creating a new kind of performance art, which continues to influence young artists today. Graham's use of film and video to reveal different perceptions of the same activity is first seen here in Roll, a film displayed on adjacent walls using two projectors. The artist filmed himself rolling around in a pile of fallen leaves through a camera strapped on his chest. He also had a friend film the same activity from a short distance away. Simultaneous and completely different points of view show the artist a) having fun in a dumb, childlike way and b) engaged in an activity that seems odd for an adult.

The culmination of his work in film and video is the nearly hour-long Rock My Religion, a striking commentary on youth culture that includes footage of Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and Black Flag mixed with historical images of the Shakers. As with all of his art, the film blurs distinction between actors and audience as it makes its viewers into collaborators. Another piece, Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay (above, right), juxtaposes present time with what Graham calls "just past." This deceptively simple installation recombines the viewers as subjects in a "hall of mirrors" where everyone can see and be seen.

This type of audience engagement is key to Graham's architectural structures, which he calls Pavilions, a number of which are included in the show. Mostly created for museum lobbies, the Pavilions use two-way mirrors to disarmingly alter the viewer's sense of place. In one piece, which has two separate spaces each with its own entrance, viewers on one side of the two-way mirror suddenly appear to be in the opposite space (above, center). Graham clearly takes the disdainful critique that something is "nothing but smoke and mirrors" as serious fun.

Dan Graham: Beyond, June 25 - October 11, 2009. The Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75^th Street, New York, New York, NY. 212-570-3633. Whitney Live is presenting a series of Indie Rock Concerts on Friday nights in June and July, which are on  pay as you wish basis. This week's installment features The Feelies. A series public programs includes a conversation with post-punk musician Glen Branca and more. Please visit the website for information, hours, and directions.