The years 1955-1965 saw artists wreaking havoc with the parameters of painting. If Abstract Expressionists had proposed art as the manipulation of paint on a flat plane, the American artist Dan Flavin further refined art as the manipulation of light itself.
Dan Flavin (1933-1996) is considered one of the most important and innovative artists of the late twentieth century. The simplicity and systematic character of his extraordinary work, along with his relentless exploration and ingenious discovery of an art of light, established him as a progenitor and chief exponent of Minimalism.
Known for his signature use of commercial fluorescent light fixtures, Dan Flavin in the early 1960s created eight wall-mounted pieces which he called Icons: monochrome wooden crates, onto which he mounted colored light bulbs or light fixtures. They bring to mind the interface between the religious mysticism of light, the illuminated billboards on Broadway and the neon shrines of popular art.
In making light his primary medium, Dan Flavin (1933-1996) established himself as one of the most innovative and significant artists of the minimalist movement. A new generation encountered Flavin's work through the critically acclaimed exhibition Dan Flavin: A Retrospective, which opened in October 2004 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Dan Flavin: New Light includes essays that respond to this exhibition and to the renewed interest in Flavin's work and its place in 20th-century art.
This monograph is published on the occasion of Dan Flavin: Series and Progressions, the first exhibition of the artist's work at David Zwirner since the gallery announced its representation of the Estate of Dan Flavin. This publication will examine Flavin's use of progressions and serial structures, ideas that were central to the artist's practice throughout his career.
Text on bottom (not shown here) includes: Dan Flavin : A Retrospective. This exhibition was organized by the Dia Art Foundation, New York, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Size: 24" x 36"