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Lot Essay
Executed at the very beginning of the Minimalist movement, Dan Flavin’s alternate diagonals of March 2, 1964 (to Don Judd) is an important, early work that showcases the magical capacity of his sculptures to activate the surrounding gallery space. Using fluorescent tubes placed at a forty-five degree angle, Flavin discovered the raw power of an entirely new medium: light. “I can take the ordinary lamp out of use and turn it into a magic that touches ancient mysteries,” Flavin said. “And yet it is still a lamp that burns to death like any other of its kind” (D. Flavin, quoted in B. Rose, Autocritique: Essays on Art and Anti-Art, 1963–1987, New York 1988, p. 71). The configuration of the present work was used in a number of other sculptures by Flavin using different types of fluorescent light, examples of which can be found in major international museums, including the Pinault Collection, Paris, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Chinati Foundation, Marfa.
The present work is one of the earliest fluorescent sculptures that Flavin ever created, and it is also one of earliest examples to include multiple tubes, following the single diagonal tube he used in the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (for Constantin Brancusi). In the present work, the artist incorporates a single six-foot tube of daylight fluorescent light that is placed at a forty-five degree angle. Four more tubes have been placed at its base, such that the single tube seems to emanate outward like a ray of light. Much like the infinite progression into space conveyed by Brancusi’s Bird in Space, the present work takes that idea one step further, with the light itself radiating outward into the physical space of the empty gallery.
In the early 1960s, Flavin wanted to move on from painting and find a real object that would be powerful enough to activate and change our perception of space. From his first light sculpture in 1963, he discovered that a captivating aura could be emanated from his chosen medium—the industrial fluorescent tube. The bright lights—either pure white as in the present work or executed in colors like red and gold—not only lit up the room but had the effect of distorting the space itself. Anyone who has encountered Flavin’s neon installations will attest, the reflections of the bright light extends to floors and ceilings, sometimes obscuring the walls of the gallery itself. “Regard the light and you are fascinated – inhibited from grasping its limits at each end,” Flavin said. “While the tube itself has an actual length…its shadow, cast by the supporting pan, has none but an illusion dissolving at its ends” (D. Flavin, quoted in “...In Daylight or Cool White: An Autobiographical Sketch.” Artforum, December 1965, p. 24).
From the very beginning of his light sculptures, Flavin took the habit of naming them after influences on his work, beginning first with Constantin Brancusi, and later including Henri Matisse, Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman and many others. The present work is named in homage to Flavin's close friend, fellow Minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. The two artists had met just two years earlier, in 1962. Together, as the artist John Wesley recalled, they “became Flavin and Judd for a while. The two names were together” (J. Wesley, quoted in M. Stockebrand, “A Conversation with John Wesley,” Chinati Foundation newsletter, October 10, 2005, online).
Indeed, both Flavin and Judd were the rising stars of the radical new Minimalist movement, which at the time was just beginning to take shape. Together, they shared an interest in moving away from the gestural bravado of Abstract Expressionism in favor of “specific objects” whose materials spoke for themselves in a direct and compelling way. As Donald Judd would later explain, writing in his famous article “Specific Objects,” in 1964, “Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface. […] Any material can be used, as is or painted” (D. Judd, “Specific Objects, reprinted in Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959-1975, Halifax, 1975, p. 184).
The present work is one of the earliest fluorescent sculptures that Flavin ever created, and it is also one of earliest examples to include multiple tubes, following the single diagonal tube he used in the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (for Constantin Brancusi). In the present work, the artist incorporates a single six-foot tube of daylight fluorescent light that is placed at a forty-five degree angle. Four more tubes have been placed at its base, such that the single tube seems to emanate outward like a ray of light. Much like the infinite progression into space conveyed by Brancusi’s Bird in Space, the present work takes that idea one step further, with the light itself radiating outward into the physical space of the empty gallery.
In the early 1960s, Flavin wanted to move on from painting and find a real object that would be powerful enough to activate and change our perception of space. From his first light sculpture in 1963, he discovered that a captivating aura could be emanated from his chosen medium—the industrial fluorescent tube. The bright lights—either pure white as in the present work or executed in colors like red and gold—not only lit up the room but had the effect of distorting the space itself. Anyone who has encountered Flavin’s neon installations will attest, the reflections of the bright light extends to floors and ceilings, sometimes obscuring the walls of the gallery itself. “Regard the light and you are fascinated – inhibited from grasping its limits at each end,” Flavin said. “While the tube itself has an actual length…its shadow, cast by the supporting pan, has none but an illusion dissolving at its ends” (D. Flavin, quoted in “...In Daylight or Cool White: An Autobiographical Sketch.” Artforum, December 1965, p. 24).
From the very beginning of his light sculptures, Flavin took the habit of naming them after influences on his work, beginning first with Constantin Brancusi, and later including Henri Matisse, Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman and many others. The present work is named in homage to Flavin's close friend, fellow Minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. The two artists had met just two years earlier, in 1962. Together, as the artist John Wesley recalled, they “became Flavin and Judd for a while. The two names were together” (J. Wesley, quoted in M. Stockebrand, “A Conversation with John Wesley,” Chinati Foundation newsletter, October 10, 2005, online).
Indeed, both Flavin and Judd were the rising stars of the radical new Minimalist movement, which at the time was just beginning to take shape. Together, they shared an interest in moving away from the gestural bravado of Abstract Expressionism in favor of “specific objects” whose materials spoke for themselves in a direct and compelling way. As Donald Judd would later explain, writing in his famous article “Specific Objects,” in 1964, “Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface. […] Any material can be used, as is or painted” (D. Judd, “Specific Objects, reprinted in Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959-1975, Halifax, 1975, p. 184).