John

Dan Flavin: A Retrospective

Dan Flavin: A Retrospective is the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of the American artist Dan Flavin (1933-96).
One of the most innovative figures in 20th-century art, Flavin used fluorescent light as his medium, adapting mass-produced, commercially-available materials into works of profound intensity and astounding beauty. Moving beyond the traditional realms of painting and sculpture, he became a key exponent of minimalism in the early 1960s, alongside artists such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt.

Flavin’s works, complex geometric forms in a series of dazzling colours, will transform the dramatic spaces of the Hayward Gallery, itself an icon of 1960s design.Including works spanning his career, from his early ‘icons’ and ‘monuments’ to corner pieces, corridors, barriers and large-scale installations, the exhibition will present around 60 light works, as well as a selection of sketches, drawings, and early collage constructions, to explore Flavin’s practice – what he called ‘as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find’.

The exhibition is organised by Dia Art Foundation, New York in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington and is accompanied by a newly published catalogue raisonné.

Hayward Gallery

January 19 - April 2, 2006