Dan Flavin

Artist

b. 1933 · United States

Biography

Dan Flavin (1933–1996) was an American artist and a leading figure of Minimalism. Born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, he turned away from painting in the early 1960s and, from 1963 onwards, worked almost exclusively with commercially available fluorescent tubes and fixtures, beginning with the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi). Using a limited range of standard colours and lengths, he created 'situations' of light that transform the architecture around them, often dedicating works to artists, friends, colleagues and family, as in his long series of 'monuments' for V. Tatlin. His major permanent installations include the Dan Flavin Art Institute in Bridgehampton, New York (1983), works at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, and the church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa, Milan, completed shortly after his death in 1996.