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Lot Essay
Dan Flavin's work has always been involved with light, architecture and the relationship between the two. In untitled (to Barry, Mike, Chuck and Leonard), Flavin creates a work in which the sculpture is literally architecture--the 8 foot tall fluorescent bulbs form a wall of light, 8 feet wide, that is placed in a narrow corridor of the same height and width. It is telling that Flavin called these works "corridors", signifying that the work is as much about the corridor of space leading up to the wall of light, as it is about the sculpture itself.
Flavin began making "corridors" in the early 1970's, with the same general size and compositional format, only he would mix up the color combinations and sometimes use horizontal lights instead of vertical ones, as he did in untitled (to Robert, Joe and Michael), 1975-1981.
In untitled (to Barry, Mike, Chuck and Leonard), on one side of the "wall", the lights are yellow and the other, pink. The lights cast their glow on the surrounding walls and the viewers perception of light and space change according to one's proximity to the lights, as well as the amount of time one spends in the corridor.
The present lot predates an important large-scale work--Flavin's installation in Marfa, Texas, untitled (Marfa Project). For that work, which created in eight U-shaped buildings, Flavin designed eight different variations on corridors, in which the lights either were at the middle of each corridor, or at the end.
Flavin did not name his sculptures, but would dedicate them, well after their creation--the present lot is named after Barry Whistler and Mike Dotzenrod, art handlers from the Fort Worth Art Museum, and Chuck Wallace and Leonard Torres, the electricians who first installed this work when it was first exhibited.
Flavin began making "corridors" in the early 1970's, with the same general size and compositional format, only he would mix up the color combinations and sometimes use horizontal lights instead of vertical ones, as he did in untitled (to Robert, Joe and Michael), 1975-1981.
In untitled (to Barry, Mike, Chuck and Leonard), on one side of the "wall", the lights are yellow and the other, pink. The lights cast their glow on the surrounding walls and the viewers perception of light and space change according to one's proximity to the lights, as well as the amount of time one spends in the corridor.
The present lot predates an important large-scale work--Flavin's installation in Marfa, Texas, untitled (Marfa Project). For that work, which created in eight U-shaped buildings, Flavin designed eight different variations on corridors, in which the lights either were at the middle of each corridor, or at the end.
Flavin did not name his sculptures, but would dedicate them, well after their creation--the present lot is named after Barry Whistler and Mike Dotzenrod, art handlers from the Fort Worth Art Museum, and Chuck Wallace and Leonard Torres, the electricians who first installed this work when it was first exhibited.