YOU DON'T KNOW DAN FLAVIN

One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find.
                                                                           —Dan Flavin, 1987



Who: Dan Flavin

Born: April 1, 1933 in Queens, New York.
Died: November 29, 1996 in Riverhead, New York.

In the beginning:
Early on, he went to parochial school and later mandatorily attended a preparatory school for the seminar.  In 1953, he enlisted in the Air Force where he was trained as meteorological technician. It was here where Flavin began using his free time to create art, visit art museum, and collect art. Flavin studied art history for at Columbia University for a bit, but realized it wasn't his true calling. From there he moved onto studying painting and drawing.

In 1961, two major events marked Flavin's life. He married his first wife, Sonja Severdija, and began using light as an art form.

His first works using this new art form were called the Icon Series, which were eight colored cubed figures. These were constructed using fluorescent tubes with incandescent bulbs attached to their sides. This piece was named Icon V.

                                                                                                

Flavin made sure to ONLY use commercially available flourscent tubing that are in standard colors, sizes, and shapes.

Later on:


The first piece that Flavin created was called "diagonal". It was a yellow flourecsent light tube that was placed against a gallery wall at a forty-five degree angle. The way the yellow light reflected off the wall was what really inspired Flavin to continue with this radical idea of his.



Flavin was greatly inspired by many Impressionist artists.  His flourescent lights grew out of traditions of the post WWII American Art. Abstraction became a dominant mode of artistic expression. More specifically, there is a similarity between Mark Rothko's luminous paintings with glowing, hovering forms, and Flavin's radiating colored lights.

Flavin preferred standard flourescent light bulbs than the loud neons. With that in mind, he decided to use a limited color palette that included red, blue, green, pink, yellow and ultraviolet. He also stuck to certain sizes of tubes that included two, four, six, and eight foot tall tubes.

Flavin's work isn't only about the flourescent tubes, but also about the space they illuminate. The colors that would reflect onto the gallery walls would create a new place for an art composition. Flavin's creations relate both to structure and paintings because they are 3D, but are mounted flat up against a gallery wall.

Most of Flavin's work was left untitled, and was instead "dedicated" to someone. That someone was normally the person that inspired him to create the flourescent art piece.

Some of his art works include the following:

"untitled (to Bernett Newman to commemorate his single problem, red, yellow blue"

"Greens Crossing Greens (to Piet Mondnan who lacked green)"

Flavin's last artwork was at Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rosa, Milan, Italy. The design for the piece was completed two days before Flavin death. The installation was completed one year later with the assistance of Dia Center for the Arts and Fondazione Prada. 

Information credited to:

"Dan Flavin: A Retrospective." National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/flavin/monuments/monuments.shtm>.

"Dan Flavin." Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Online Encyclopedia, 9 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_flavin>.