Flavin, Dan [key], 1933–96, American sculptor, b. New York City. In the early 1960s, Flavin experimented with fluorescent lights, bending them into complex, angular shapes. His sculptures, which are closely related to minimalism in underlying approach, incorporate installations of commercially made fixtures that diffuse colored light, thus breaking down or defining the space around them. Flavin's work is represented in many public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim and Los Angeles County museums. Much of his late work was extremely large and site-specific. A gallery devoted to his work opened in Houston, Tex., in 1998 and features a large light frieze installed on its outer and inner surfaces. When Flavin died, he left instructions for the creation of his last work, a vast light construction, Untitled (Marfa Project), that was completed in 2001 and occupies six buildings at Donald Judd's huge Marfa, Tex., art space.
See studies by J. F. Ragheb, ed. (1999) and M. Govan et al. (2004).
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