SOUTHBANK CENTRE

Dan Flavin: A Retrospective

19 January - 02 April 2006


Dan Flavin: A Retrospective is the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of the American artist Dan Flavin (1933-96).

Dan Flavin, untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 6, 1963

One of the most innovative figures in 20th-century art, Flavin used fluorescent light as his medium, adapting mass-produced, commercially-available materials into works of profound intensity and astounding beauty. Moving beyond the traditional realms of painting and sculpture, he became a key exponent of minimalism in the early 1960s, alongside artists such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt.

Flavin’s works, complex geometric forms in a series of dazzling colours, transformed the dramatic spaces of the Hayward Gallery, itself an icon of 1960s design. Including works spanning his career, from his early ‘icons’ and ‘monuments’ to corner pieces, corridors, barriers and large-scale installations, the exhibition presented more than 50 light works, as well as a selection of sketches, drawings, and early collage constructions, to explore Flavin’s practice - what he called ‘as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find’.

The exhibition was organised by Dia Art Foundation, New York in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington and was accompanied by a newly published catalogue raisonné.

Visit the dedicated microsite for more information on this exhibition.

Exhibition sponsored by Bloomberg.

 

Dan Flavin, untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 6, 1963, courtesy Stephen Flavin.