Dan Flavin, Untitled (to Don Judd, colorist), (1987).
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
5 Pivotal Works by Light Artist Dan Flavin
On view through August 28, a new solo exhibition at Switzerland’s Kunstmuseum Basel puts an unusual focus on works dedicated to individuals or events
Dan Flavin. Photo: Gianfranco Gorgoni
The Kunstmuseum Basel will display a new exhibition, “Dan Flavin: Dedications in Lights,” from March 2 through August 18, that will, unusually, focus on works he dedicated to individuals or events.
Flavin’s first major show in Switzerland in 12 years, the show maintains the artist’s longstanding presence in Basel, which began in 1975, when the Kunsthalle Basel and Kunstmuseum Basel staged a double exhibition of his work.
According to the Kunstmuseum, Flavin “habitually dedicated his works throughout his career, associating them, often in sentimental and personal fashion, with individuals or events,” as is reflected in their titles. Many of the fluorescent light installations he produced from 1963 on were dedicated to his artist friends such as Jasper Johns and Donald Judd, or to Modernists such as Henri Matisse or Vladimir Tatlin. An outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Flavin also refers to political events in other works. “These dedications stand in deliberate contrast with the anonymity of the industrial material” used in his fluorescent light installations, the museum added.
Olga Osadtschy, a co-curator of the exhibition, called Flavin’s work “very fresh from a contemporary perspective. When you move through a Dan Flavin exhibition, it interacts with your perception in most unexpected ways. It’s a very sensual experience.”
Dan Flavin, monument for V. Tatlin, (1964). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
1. monument for V. Tatlin, 1964
The show displays three of 50 works in a series dedicated to the Russian Constructivist, Vladimir Tatlin. According to the museum, Flavin was especially impressed with Tatlin’s “Monument to the Third International,” which Tatlin planned in 1919–20. The monument, a glass tower in the form of a double helix, was never realized due to structural problems and a lack of glass and steel.
Dan Flavin, monument 4 for those who have been killed in ambush (to P.K., who reminded me about death), (1966). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
2. monument 4 for those who have been killed in ambush (to P.K., who reminded me about death), 1966
This work was displayed in a landmark 1966 exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York, “Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors.” The work, meant to protest the Vietnam War, was dedicated to Flavin’s friend, Paul Katz. According to the Kunstmuseum, the artwork’s dedication refers to a conversation Flavin and Katz had about the war, “during which Katz mentioned how many people had likely lost their lives in the war. Flavin emphasizes this tragedy in the title.”
Dan Flavin, untitled (to a man, George McGovern) 2, (1972). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
3. untitled (to a man, George McGovern) 1 and 2, 1972
The museum is showing one of two works Flavin showed in an exhibition in November 1972 at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York that opened three days before the 1972 Presidential election, in which President Richard Nixon defeated Senator George McGovern. According to the Kunstmuseum, other artists who supported McGovern included Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol.
Dan Flavin, untitled (in memory of Urs Graf), (1975). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
4. untitled (in memory of Urs Graf), 1975
Flavin made this piece for the museum’s 1975 joint exhibition with the Kunsthalle Basel; it has been displayed in the Kunstmuseum’s inner courtyard ever since. According to the Kunstmuseum, the work’s yellow, green, blue and pink fluorescent lightbulbs are “precisely fitted into the four corners of the arcaded courtyard and the multicolored light transforms the built space, especially in the evenings.” The work is dedicated to Urs Graf (1485-1529), a Swiss Renaissance goldsmith, draftsman, engraver, stained glass artist and painter. Flavin selected 27 of Graf’s drawings for his 1975 exhibition at the Kunstmuseum; a selection of these is on display in the new exhibition.
Dan Flavin, Untitled (to Don Judd, colorist), (1987). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
5. Untitled (to Don Judd, colorist), 1987
Flavin’s series to his friend, Minimalist artist Donald Judd, the museum said, “references (Judd’s) artistic work and use of industrially manufactured materials and forms in pure colors with heavy irony.” The series was installed in the house Judd bought in 1986 at 101 Spring Street in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, which today houses the Judd Foundation.
Cover: Dan Flavin, Untitled (to Don Judd, colorist), (1987).
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
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