1. While Flavin works with ethereal “light,” he also works with mundane, manufactured fluorescent fixtures with no attempt to hide or adorn their industrial forms. Where have you seen these fixtures used? Why might Flavin have chosen these over more decorative possibilities?
   

2. Few artists are more closely identified with a particular medium than Dan Flavin. After 1963, Flavin’s work was composed almost entirely of light, in the form of commercially available fluorescent tubes in ten colors (blue, green, pink, red, yellow, ultraviolet, and four whites) and five shapes (one circular and four straight fixtures of different lengths). Do you see the exclusive use of these lights in making his work as limiting or liberating? Explain your response.
   

3. By selecting light as his medium, Flavin connects the viewer to one of the most elemental components of existence. Try to generate a list of phrases that contain the word “light,” such as “Light at the end of the tunnel,” or “I’ve seen the light.” What are the symbolic associations of light? Do any of the phrases you thought of relate to your impressions of Flavin’s work? Explain your response.

Consider various industrial materials that could be used to make art.  Looking through commercial catalogues may be helpful in considering your options. Make diagrams (or as Flavin would call them, “proposals”) that show how this object (or objects) might be used to create a work of art. Describe your installation plans to your classmates and explain why you have chosen this particular object.

Flavin would frequently title his works to pay tribute or acknowledge people who were, in some way, important to him. Some were historical figures including the Russian Constructivist designer Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953), artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), and the medieval scholar William of Ockham (1280–1349), who wrote, “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.”[3] Flavin also titled works after people in his life, including art historian Robert Rosenblum, friend and colleague Ward Jackson, and his fiancée Tracy. For whom might you title an important piece of your work? Why?

Dan Flavin, fluorescent light, etc (exh. cat.). Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1969.

Flavin, Dan. “‘in daylight or cool white.’ an autobiographical sketch.” Artforum (Los Angeles) 4, no. 4 (December 1965), pp. 21–24.

Poetter, Jochen, Madeleine Deschamps, et al. new uses for fluorescent light with diagrams, drawings and prints from Dan Flavin (exh. cat.). Baden-Baden: Staatliche Kunsthalle, 1989. In German and English.