Dan Flavin (1933-1996)
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Dan Flavin (1933-1996)

Untitled (for Leo Castelli at his Gallery's 30th Anniversary) 3

Details
Dan Flavin (1933-1996)
Untitled (for Leo Castelli at his Gallery's 30th Anniversary) 3
red, pink, yellow, blue and green fluorescent light
47¼ x 47¼in. (120 x 120cm.)
Executed in 1989, this work is from an edition of five of which only one was fabricated
Provenance
Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna.
Galerie Laage-Salomon, Paris (aquired in 1989).
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1995.
Literature
R. Puvogel, 'Dan Flavin und Donald Judd in der Kunsthalle Baden-Baden', in Parkett, no. 22, 1989 (illustrated in colour, p. 19).
R. G. Dienst, 'Dan Flavin: Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden', in Das Kunstwerk, no. 2, June 1989, p. 95.
C. W. Thomsen, 'Part 8: Light-Architecture-Media', in A + U, no. 310, July 1996 (illustrated in colour, p. 120).
D. Bachelor, Minimalism, London 1997 (illustrated in colour, p. 52).
M. Govan and T. Bell, Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights 1961-1996, New York 2004, no. 512 (illustrated in colour, p. 368).
Exhibited
Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Neue Anwendungen fluoreszierenden Lichts mit Diagrammen, Zeichnungen und Drucken von Dan Flavin, 1989, no. 11 (illustrated in colour, pp. 85-87).
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.
Sale room notice
Please note that this lot should not be starred in the catalogue.

Please note the work is incorrectly illustrated in the catalogue. The two lower lights should be inverted, the blue in place of the green and vice versa.

Brought to you by

Louisa Robertson
Louisa Robertson

Lot Essay

As its title implies, Untitled (for Leo Castelli at his Gallerys 30th Anniversary) 3 is Dan Flavin's illuminated tribute to one of the world's most prominent art dealers. The idea for this work was initially conceived of in 1987, when the elderly gallerist commemorated his third decade of business with two important shows, one dedicated to the Pop artists he first brought to public attention, and the second to the Minimalist and Conceptual artists he later championed. This work was executed in 1989 and is the third model of Flavins tribute to Castelli. The earlier versions, (one of which is housed in the National Gallery of Canada, and another is on permanent loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) follow the same format of a gridded square designed to be placed across the corner of the room, but they feature five vertical and five horizontal fixtures. Flavin, a master of finding variation within repetition, has used six fluorescent tubes in each orientation in this sculpture, arranging the off-the-shelf hues of red, pink, yellow, blue and green in a celebratory rainbow of radiant light. Though seemingly a minor difference, the result is significant, bathing the surrounding walls in a more complete spectrum of colour.

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