Dan Flavin

Dan Flavin , 1933-96, American sculptor, b. New York City. In the early 1960s, Flavin experimented with fluorescent lights, bending them into complex, angular shapes. His sculptures, which are closely related to minimalism in underlying approach, incorporate installations of commercially made fixtures that diffuse colored light, thus breaking down or defining the space around them. Flavin's work is represented in many public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim and Los Angeles County museums. Much of his late work was extremely large and site-specific. A gallery devoted to his work opened in Houston, Tex., in 1998 and features a large light frieze installed on its outer and inner surfaces. When Flavin died, he left instructions for the creation of his last work, a vast light construction, Untitled (Marfa Project), that was completed in 2001 and occupies six buildings at Donald Judd 's huge Marfa, Tex., art space.

Bibliography: See studies by J. F. Ragheb, ed. (1999) and M. Govan et al. (2004).

Flavin, Dan (b New York, 1 Apr. 1933; d Riverhead, Long Island, NY, 29 Nov. 1996). American sculptor and experimental artist. Apart from some lessons at the Hans Hofmann School in 1956 he had no formal training in art and did not take it up seriously until 1959. In 1961 he began to make ‘icons’, in which plainly painted, square-fronted constructions were combined with lights, and in 1963 he began using coloured fluorescent tubes; it is for this type of work that he became best known. In general he eschewed complicated effects of pulsating or flashing lights, preferring a bare and simple presentation that brought him within the orbit of Minimal art. By 1968 his work had developed into room environments. He had many commissions, including the lighting of several tracks at New York's Grand Central Station in 1976.

Flavin, Dan (1933–1996). American sculptor and experimental artist, born in New York. Apart from some lessons at the Hans Hofmann School in 1956 he had no formal training in art and he did not take it up seriously until 1959. In 1961 he had his first one-man exhibition (of watercolours and constructions) at the Judson Gallery, New York, and in the same year he began to make ‘icons', in which plainly painted, square-fronted constructions were combined with lights. In 1963 he began using coloured fluorescent tubes, and it is for this type of work that he became well known. In general he eschewed complicated effects of pulsating or flashing lights, preferring a bare and simple presentation that brought him within the orbit of Minimal art. By 1968 his work had developed into room environments. He had many commissions, including the lighting of several tracks at New York's Grand Central Station in 1976.