biography
Dan Flavin, born 1933 in Jamaica, New York State, was an american concept and light artist. Flavin is considered one of the pioneers of light sculpture. From 1947 to 1952 he attended the Cathedral Collage of the Immaculate Conception, Brooklyn in New York, and in 1953 the United States Air Force Meteorological Technician Training School in Illinois. Here Flavin was trained as a flying weather meteorologist. In 1956 he studied art history at the New School for Social Reserch and in 1957 at Columbia University.
As an artist, he was self-taught. After starting out in conventional media, Dan Flavin used light for the first time in 1961. In that year he created his first "icons", monochrome colored surfaces framed by light bulbs. He became known for his works made from 1963 onwards from commercially available, standardized fluorescent tubes, which became the exclusive component of his art. His breakthrough to a strictly minimalist concept came with purely geometric formations of fluorescent tubes on walls or in the room. The light radiating into the room cancels out the materiality of the luminous body and creates sculptures of light due to the optical change of the room.
Dan Flavin also belongs to Minimal Art because he completely eliminates the subjective handwriting and insists on the clarity of the underlying structures. Later, he created neon installations on buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in 1992 or the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Berlin in 1996. From 1991 until his death he lived and worked in Wainscott, New York.
His works were shown at Leo Castelli Gallery (New York), The National Gallery of Art (Washington), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Musée Art Contemporain (Lyon).
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Dan Flavin. Espacio y Luz, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago
Dan Flavin, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
2018
Dan Flavin. Light: 1963-1974, Lotte Museum of Art, Seoul
2017
Dan Flavin: From the Collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo
2015
Dan Flavin: icons, Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton
Dan Flavin. 2 Works, Judd Foundation, New York
2013
Artist Rooms: Dan Flavin, Tate Modern, London
Dan Flavin, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
2012
Dan Flavin: Drawing, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York
Dan Flavin, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld
Dan Flavin: Lights, MUMOK/Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
2011
Untitled (to Helga and Carlo, with respect and affection) 1974, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
2008
Dan Flavin: Constructed Light, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis
2007
Dan Flavin, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Dan Flavin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
2006
Dan Flavin, Gagosian Gallery, London
Dan Flavin: drawing water light, The Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh
Dan Flavin, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
2005
Dan Flavin, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2004
Dan Flavin: Stanze di luce tra Varese e New York; Opere della Collezione Panza dal Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Villa Panza, Varese
Dan Flavin, Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth
2003
Dan Flavin: Monuments for V. Tatlin, Richmond Hall, Menil Collection, Houston
2001
Dan Flavin, Serpentine Gallery, London
1999
Dan Flavin: icons 1961-1963, Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton
Dan Flavin: The Architecture of Light, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
1998
Dan Flavin, Centro Cultural Light, Rio de Janeiro
Dan Flavin, Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires
Dan Flavin, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg
1997
Dan Flavin: 1962/63, 1970, 1996, Dia Center for the Arts, New York
Dan Flavin: Drawings, Chinati Foundation, Marfa
Dan Flavin: Opere 1964-1981, Fondazione Prada, Milan
1996
Dan Flavin, Pace Wildenstein, New York
Dan Flavin: Fluorescent Light (produced for Munich publishers), Edition Schellmann, Munich
1995
Dan Flavin, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York
1994
Dan Flavin, Kunstbau Lenbachhaus, Munich
1993
Dan Flavin: Lichträume, Städtische Galerie im Städel, Frankfurt am Main
1992
Dan Flavin, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1991
Dan Flavin: Tatlin Monuments, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1989
Neue Anwendungen fluoreszierenden Lichts mit Diagrammen, Zeichnungen und Drucken von Dan Flavin/new uses for fluorescent light with diagrams, drawings, and prints from Dan Flavin, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden
Dan Flavin: to the Citizens of the Republic of France on the 200th Anniversary of their revolution, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
New drawings, diagrams and prints from Dan Flavin (to Sabine), Castelli Graphics and Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1987
Dan Flavin, Musée St. Pierre Art Contemporain, Lyon
Dan Flavin: A New Work, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1986
New Works: Dan Flavin, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge
Dan Flavin: lichinstallaties/light installations, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1985
Untitled (to my dear bitch, Airily) 2, 1984, by Dan Flavin, Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton
Ksenija’s frieze from Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo
1984
Untitled (to my dear bitch, Airily) 2, 1984, by Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
‘monuments’ for V. Tatlin from Dan Flavin. 1964-1983, MoCA Temporary Contemporary, Los Angeles
1983
Dan Flavin, Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton
1981
Dan Flavin: corridors, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1979
Dan Flavin: 1960s and 1970s Installations, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1978
Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
... drawn along the shores. 1959-1976 by Dan Flavin, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton
1976
cornered installations of ultra-violet and red fluorescent light, Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Oregon
Dan Flavin: Colored Fluorescent Light, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin: drawings, diagrams and prints 1972-1975, Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth
1975
fünf Installationen in fluoreszierendem Licht von Dan Flavin, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
Zeichnungen, Diagramme, Druckgraphik 1972 bis 1975 und zwei Installationen in fluoreszierendem Licht von Dan Flavin, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel
fluorescent light from Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery and John Weber Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Dan Flavin: installations in fluorescent light 1972-1975, Fort Worth Art Museum, Forth Worth
1974
some uneven cool white circular fluorescent light for the new, even walls of the Leo Castelli Gallery, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin: prints, diagrams and fluorescent light, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
1973
drawings and diagrams from Dan Flavin 1963-1972; corners, barriers and corridors in fluorescent light from Dan Flavin, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
Dan Flavin: Diagrams for Circular Fluorescent Light, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin: three installations in fluorescent light/Drei Installationen in fluoreszierendem Licht, Kunsthalle Köln, Cologne
1972
cornered fluorescent light from Dan Flavin, Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston
an exposition of cool white and warm white circular fluorescent light from Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1971
Dan Flavin: two new near-square cornered installations with their diagrams, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1970
Four ‘monuments’ for V. Tatlin 1964-1969 from Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Dan Flavin, Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris
Untitled (to Barnett Newman) 1970 from Dan Flavin, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
1969
Dan Flavin: fluorescent light, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Dan Flavin, Fine Arts Center, University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island
1967
Dan Flavin: alternating pink and ‘gold’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
1965
Dan Flavin, Fine Arts Building, Ohio State University, Columbus