What Dan Flavin’s First Light Pieces Tell Us About His Devotional Art

Karen Rosenberg | artspace | 14th August 2015

Dan Flavin greatly admired the Russian artist Tatlin and, like all the serious minded Minimalists, copied Tatlin’s use of common materials. Flavin’s material of choice is the “anonymous and inglorious” florescent light. For him it has no symbolism and his sculptures work by impacting the space around them. “They are constructed concentrations celebrating barren rooms. They bring a limited light.”