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Lot Essay
An early and triumphant work by the Minimalist artist Dan Flavin, untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 6 is an evocative sculpture that celebrates the medium of light with its atmospheric glowing ultraviolet and blue hues. Created in 1963—the year Flavin made his first neon sculptures—the present work acts as a precursor to his celebrated monument sculptures. Dedicated to the abstract expressionist pioneers, James (Jim) Brooks and Charlotte Brooks (née Park), this beguiling memorial combines Flavin’s iconic style with his rich appreciation of the history of art.
Flavin also described these creations as ‘icons’: a term that links them to the sumptuous gold leaf surfaces of Russian icon paintings, which he had encountered at an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the previous year. Indeed, the artist rejoiced in the disparity between their humble, utilitarian apparatus—simple light fixtures ordered from a shop in Brooklyn—and the weightless transcendental effects they created. In an autobiographical essay of 1965, he spoke of the diagonal as a form of ‘personal ecstasy’, its 45-degree inclination representing a position of ‘dynamic equilibrium’. ‘Regard the light and you are fascinated’, he continued, ‘– inhibited from grasping its limits at each end’ (D. Flavin, ‘“... in daylight or cool white.” An autobiographical sketch', Artforum, Vol. 4, December 1965, pp. 20-24).
Flavin’s dedicated neons may simultaneously act as self-portraiture. He wrote in 1966, “The lamps will go out (as they should, no doubt). Somehow I believe that the changing standard lighting system should support my idea within it. I will try to maintain myself this way. It may work out. The medium bears the artist…” (D. Flavin, “Some Remarks,” Artforum, December 1966). The neon tubes in untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 6 bear all three artists together—Brooks, Park and Flavin—in retrospect, a tribute to them all.
Even with this meditation on death and legacy, a certain whimsicality cannot be denied in Flavin’s neons. A 1985 review of his solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York recalls the “children that were crawling ecstatically around the floor during the reviewer’s visit, supplying the ‘performance’ that the lights seem to promise” (V. Raynor, “Art: The Colorful Fluorescent Bars of Dan Flavin,” The New York Times, 28 June 1985). Even within the deepest questions of art and life, there can also be moments of quotidian joy. Such joy and contemplation, born from such simplicity, is exactly why Flavin’s neons have become celebrated all over the world.
Flavin also described these creations as ‘icons’: a term that links them to the sumptuous gold leaf surfaces of Russian icon paintings, which he had encountered at an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the previous year. Indeed, the artist rejoiced in the disparity between their humble, utilitarian apparatus—simple light fixtures ordered from a shop in Brooklyn—and the weightless transcendental effects they created. In an autobiographical essay of 1965, he spoke of the diagonal as a form of ‘personal ecstasy’, its 45-degree inclination representing a position of ‘dynamic equilibrium’. ‘Regard the light and you are fascinated’, he continued, ‘– inhibited from grasping its limits at each end’ (D. Flavin, ‘“... in daylight or cool white.” An autobiographical sketch', Artforum, Vol. 4, December 1965, pp. 20-24).
Flavin’s dedicated neons may simultaneously act as self-portraiture. He wrote in 1966, “The lamps will go out (as they should, no doubt). Somehow I believe that the changing standard lighting system should support my idea within it. I will try to maintain myself this way. It may work out. The medium bears the artist…” (D. Flavin, “Some Remarks,” Artforum, December 1966). The neon tubes in untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 6 bear all three artists together—Brooks, Park and Flavin—in retrospect, a tribute to them all.
Even with this meditation on death and legacy, a certain whimsicality cannot be denied in Flavin’s neons. A 1985 review of his solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York recalls the “children that were crawling ecstatically around the floor during the reviewer’s visit, supplying the ‘performance’ that the lights seem to promise” (V. Raynor, “Art: The Colorful Fluorescent Bars of Dan Flavin,” The New York Times, 28 June 1985). Even within the deepest questions of art and life, there can also be moments of quotidian joy. Such joy and contemplation, born from such simplicity, is exactly why Flavin’s neons have become celebrated all over the world.