Dan Flavin Lights

Transforming color into light is one of the great themes of painting. Dan Flavin (1933–1996) used light as color and material. Employing ordinary neon light tubes, he developed a radical new form of art that freed the “picture” from its frame and turned it into a luminous, space-consuming color object. Expanding the wall painting by turning it into a light installation corresponded with the liberation of light from its traditionally spiritual meaning. Flavin’s works recall neon signs from urban nightlife or commonplace living-room lamps. Viewers find themselves immersed in a splendid play of light and color that allows the physical experience of unrestrained art. This publication elucidates the development of Flavin’s oeuvre—from the visual objects, the so-called Icons, to the spatial installations with neon tubes—and explains their genesis based on drawings and prints, an independent group of works that testifies to the artist’s visual sensitivity.