Floor 4: Dan Flavin: Northwest entrance from Richter
Overview
Interpretive Text
Objects
2 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Label Text
1969
Cool white fluorescent light
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 2008
This is one of thirty-nine arrangements of “cool white” fluorescent light fixtures that Flavin created between 1964 and 1990 and dedicated to the Russian Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953). Their title and vertical form refer to Tatlin’s never-realized project Monument to the Third International(1919–20), a spiraling steel and glass structure that would have dwarfed Paris’s Eiffel Tower. Flavin pays homage to Tatlin’s quest to merge art and technology, yet ironically undermines his predecessor’s utopianism with what he called his “temporary monuments,” composed of modest, off-the-shelf lights with a limited lifespan.
Visual Description
A roughly 8 ft-tall arrangement of cool white fluorescent light tube fixturescreates a vertical, stepped tower that tapers upward, glowing against a smooth pale wall and casting soft halos of light. Several long fluorescent fixtures are set vertically against a wallin parallel, their translucent tubes held in slim, silvery metal housings with visible end caps and brackets. The structure is symmetrical: two tallest tubes rise in the center, flanked by slightly shorter tubes, then lower tiers that step down to each side. At the base, multiple tube ends rest on the floor. The brightest light pools on the floor directly in front, creating a pale reflection and a gradient of illumination across the floor. Vertical lines and evenly diffused white light help create the sculpture’s form.
Label Text
1971
Yellow, red, and blue fluorescent light
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1990
With its title and use of red, yellow, and blue lights, this work pays tribute to the US abstract painter Barnett Newman (1905–1970), a longtime supporter of Flavin who used the same palette in a series of paintings playfully titled Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?.__A connection to painting is further suggested by the rectangular formation of the light fixtures, which suggests a picture canvas. Flavin’s works, however, occupy real space. The lights block off and visually dissolve the corner—a part of the room that is easily overlooked.
Visual Description
A large fluorescent light installation sits centered on a corner where two walls meet, flooding the space with saturated purple and magenta light. A horizontal yellow-to-orange fluorescent tube caps the top, mirrored by another identical bar along the bottom at floor level, forming a bright frame. On both the left and right sides, vertical bands of hot pink-red light run downward, creating halos that fade into violet across the surrounding walls. Inside the frame, a cool-toned panel glows in gradients of blue and lavender, with a vertical seam down the middle and a subtle V-shaped notch at the bottom edge. Narrow metallic-looking strips with small fasteners or rivets line the inner left and right edges, catching the colored light. The wood floor reflects the purple wash~~.~~