To produce works, or rather, "situations" of great emotional intensity from extremely simple devices, is what the master of neon, Dan Flavin (1933-1996), achieved. The Kunstmuseum Basel brings together some of his major works.
christened The Diagonal of personal ecstasyA simple neon sign, fixed diagonally to a wall by the self-taught artist (who would soon be considered, along with Donald Judd, as a pioneer of Minimal art), marked a turning point in the history of contemporary art in May 1963. Dan Flavin not only freed color from the two-dimensionality of the painting, but he also conflated it with light itself. “Very quickly, Dan Flavin understood how much space and the viewer's perception could be transformed by the power and dynamics of his tool, which was both light and color.”1"
"Hyperpresence of the immaterial"
Tangible and intangible, hypnotic and untouchable, dazzling and enveloping, transforming the viewer's mental space and the architectural space, his neon installations will invariably seek to achieve the "hyperpresence of the immaterial." 1 Placed on the floor, wall, ceiling, in a corner, as a barrier or in a corridor, and available in the four standard lengths and nine commercially available colors, the fluorescent tubes, positioned in specific situations (Dan Flavin himself described his art as "situational"), are mostly dedicated to other artists. 2, when they are not referring to concrete events, such as the atrocities of war or police violence. Thus, the poignant Monument for those who have been killed in ambush (to PK who reminded me about death) dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Vietnam War, consisting of a sheaf of glowing red tubes piercing and saturating the space.
1 – Suzanne Pagé, curator of the Dan Flavin retrospective held in 2006 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
2 – Such as Constantin Brancusi, Vladimir Tatlin, Jasper Johns and Barnett Newman.
From 2 March to 18 August 2024
kunstmuseumbasel.ch
