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untitled (for you Leo, in long respect and affection) 4
Artist
Dan Flavin
(Born 1933, United Staes; died 1996, United States)
Date1978
MediumPink, green, blue and yellow fluorescent light
DimensionsOverall: 48 x 48 x 2 in. (121.92 x 121.92 x 5.08 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum Purchase
Object number2010.4
Status
On viewCopyright© 2020 Dan Flavin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Category
Label TextDan Flavin began making his signature works of industrially prefabricated fluorescent tubes and fixtures in 1963. Although he is described as one of the patriarchs of Minimalist sculpture—along with Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt—he generally rejected the appellations “Minimalist” and “sculpture” as too confining. He often pointed out that his works are ephemeral, temporary, and installed in relation to given architectural conditions. Emanating different colors of light, Flavin’s installations have an indeterminate volume and appear virtually without mass. Marcel Duchamp’s readymades offer an important precedent for Flavin’s off-the-shelf materials and reliance on the common, found object.
Where does a work like untitled (for you Leo, in long respect and affection) 4, 1978, begin and end? Typically, a painting or sculpture is defined by the light that shines on it. For untitled, the piece itself shines outward, engulfing us in the process. The commercially manufactured fixture cannot be separated from the light it emits, which reaches out to the world around it. In this sense, the artist balanced cool, Duchampian detachment and material objectivity with subjective, lyrical beauty.
In the Modern’s untitled—one of the artist’s “corner pieces”—Flavin framed the seam of two walls by propping a 48-by-48-inch double-sided grid of light in the corner. The piece projects pink, green, blue, and yellow fluorescent light that bathes the wall and the room with a rainbow glow. The artist often dedicated his works to those who influenced him, and this work is one of four corner sculptures from 1978 that he dedicated to his gallerist Leo Castelli.
Where does a work like untitled (for you Leo, in long respect and affection) 4, 1978, begin and end? Typically, a painting or sculpture is defined by the light that shines on it. For untitled, the piece itself shines outward, engulfing us in the process. The commercially manufactured fixture cannot be separated from the light it emits, which reaches out to the world around it. In this sense, the artist balanced cool, Duchampian detachment and material objectivity with subjective, lyrical beauty.
In the Modern’s untitled—one of the artist’s “corner pieces”—Flavin framed the seam of two walls by propping a 48-by-48-inch double-sided grid of light in the corner. The piece projects pink, green, blue, and yellow fluorescent light that bathes the wall and the room with a rainbow glow. The artist often dedicated his works to those who influenced him, and this work is one of four corner sculptures from 1978 that he dedicated to his gallerist Leo Castelli.