Ode to Dan Flavin, master of fluorescent tubes at the Kunstmuseum Basel
Published: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 15:00
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Dan Flavin's works bathe the exhibition rooms of the Kunstmuseum Basel in a new light, both literally and in an overarching sense. The museum is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the pioneer of minimal art under the title "Dan Flavin - Dedications of Light".
It should have been a moment of shock when the American artist Dan Flavin (1933-1996) hung a standard yellow fluorescent tube diagonally on the wall in 1963 and declared it to be art under the title "The Diagonal of May 25".
You might think so. But it wasn't. Flavin's new art of light, which took color out of painting and into three-dimensional space, quickly found favor in art circles and made him a star of the scene.
His works have long since become icons of post-war modernism, trading for millions on the art market. Flavin became an unmistakable master of fluorescence, although he always used industrially manufactured tubes.
When you encounter this and the other works in the exhibition "Dan Flavin - Dedications of Light" at the Kunstmuseum, there is no longer any doubt as to whether this is art or not. However, this was not always the case in Europe, or more precisely in Basel.
Initial skepticism about the work
In 1975, one of the early Flavin double exhibitions on this side of the Atlantic took place at the Kunsthalle and Kunstmuseum Basel. This resulted in a site-specific installation in the entrance courtyard of the Kunstmuseum's main building, which Flavin dedicated to the Swiss Renaissance artist Urs Graf.
At the time, the art commission could not agree on whether the work should remain in this location. Only the donation by the Dia Art Foundation convinced the skeptics. Nevertheless, the tubes remained switched off for a long time. Today, the play of pink, yellow, green and blue light is a natural part of the building.
The retrospective provides a chronological route through the exhibition rooms, which is also thematic in nature. Over time, Flavin created increasingly complex light installations.
"It's what it is ..."
On the one hand, he dedicated them to his artist friends such as Donald Judd and Jasper Johns, but on the other, he combined them with political statements against the Vietnam War or the nuclear arms race. However, Flavin defended himself against an interpretation in a metaphysical sense with the words: "It is what it is and it ain't nothin' else." ("It is what it is and it ain't nothin' else.")
Nevertheless, the metaphysical cannot be pushed aside, as a walk through the exhibition shows. Flavin's works change the perception of space, make corners disappear and dissolve architectural boundaries, which was definitely the artist's intention.
The exhibition "Dan Flavin - Dedications of Light" in the new building of the Kunstmuseum Basel runs until August 18.
©Keystone/SDA
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