Kivinen presented Dan Flavin’s site-specific installation Untitled in Chiesa Rossa, Milan. The artwork sparked discussion about the difference between lighting and installation; Flavin’s piece comprises the whole hall, providing its sole lighting. As usual, Flavin has used off-the-shelf fluorescent tubes, mainly in colours of blue and pink, with accenting yellow. Even if it’s not the usual subtle and unnoticed light of a church with its bold colours and striking composition, technically it could be regarded as lighting. On the other hand, light has it very own, unique essence, not in service of architecture per se. The walls are rather a canvas for light than something to be lighted.
Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin’s seminal works established fluorescent tubes as a fine art medium, transforming galleries and public spaces through color interplay and architectural activation.
“The diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi)” was his breakthrough: A single gold fluorescent tube mounted at 45 degrees on the wall marked the shift from painted “Icons” to pure industrial light as dematerialized sculpture.
“monument” series for V. Tatlin (1964–90): Over 50 variations paying homage to Vladimir Tatlin’s unrealized Monument to the Third International, using cool white tubes in simple vertical, horizontal, or diagonal configurations to evoke Constructivist ideals through light’s spatial dynamics.
“Untitled (to Donald Judd, colorist) 1-5 (1987)”: Five T-shaped fixtures in yellow, pink, green, red, and blue that pulse with disco-like energy, dedicated to his minimalist peer and highlighting color’s relational power.
“European Couples series (1966–71)”: Nine works blending all commercial fluorescent colors (daylight, cool white, pink, etc.), dedicated to friends and transforming spaces with emotional, site-responsive glows.
LIGHT AND SPACE
Dan Flavin stands as a foundational figure whose pioneering fluorescent light installations profoundly shaped the Light and Space movement, even as he identified more closely with Minimalism’s industrial rigor. By deploying off-the-shelf tubes in precise geometric arrays liberated light from canvas confines, flooding architectural volumes with immaterial color fields that dissolved objecthood and activated viewer perception in real time.
STUDIES
1947–1952 Douglaston (us), CATHEDRAL COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: Seminary
1954–1955 Korea (kr), UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXTENSION PROGRAM: Art Studies
1956 New York (us), HANS HOFMANN SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS: Painting
1956–1957 New York (us), NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH: Art History
1957–1959 New York (us), COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Painting and Drawing
BIO
1996 Died in Riverhead/NY (us).
1933 Born in Jamaica/NY (us).