The Da Vinci of the Fluorescent

摘要

Dan Flavin created wondrous art works by simply using assemblages of coloured and white fluorescent tubes. Carl Gardner reviews a retrospective exhibition of his pieces at the Hayward Gallery in London. There are probably only two 'lighting artists' whose names are recognised in the global art world - both Americans. The first is James Turrell, who is still alive and who works at the interface of natural and artificial light, often with ethereal, almost transcendental, intent and on a monumental scale. By contrast, Dan Flavin, who died in 1996 at the age of 63 - and whose work is currently receiving its first major UK retrospective at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank (Jan 19-April 2) - has based most of his work in galleries or similar spaces. Most of his pieces are assemblages of 2, 4, 6 and 8-foot T12 (1.5") fluorescent tubes, in six commercially available colours, as well as four colour temperatures of white.