Word Works

Dan Flavin is one of my ‘Art Heroes’. His work is brave, clear, direct, uncompromising and consistent. It is also light, spacious and defies notions of what art is or should be.

He found his mature form with fluorescent light tubes and began to move away from studio production. He would not call his art ‘work’ or ‘sculpture’, preferring ‘proposal’ or ‘installation’.

Like other Art Heroes, I think Flavin offers an alternative way of making, thinking and receiving/experiencing art. He provides a different way that can be serious, intellectual, beautiful and enjoyable on its own terms and for it’s own sake.

“I like art as thought better than art as work”, “I’ve always maintained this. It’s important to me that I don’t get my hands dirty. It’s not because I’m instinctively lazy. It’s a declaration: art is thought.”

My efforts here are typically fanboy. Gold, silver and black.