Works of art from fluorescent tubes and fixtures
In 1963, Dan Flavin creates his first light sculpture with a diagonal fluorescent lamp with yellow light, the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi). From that moment on, he has worked only with existing, factory-produced fluorescent tubes and fixtures. He is concerned not only with the composition of the lamps themselves, but also with how the light alters the experience of space.
Initially, Flavin's 'situations', as he calls his installations, are simple compositions of a few fluorescent tubes on the wall, but they soon become more spatial and complex. They lean in a corner, are placed along a plinth, accentuate a doorframe or protrude boldly into the space.
Collection of Mia and Martin Visser at the Kröller-Müller
In the autumn of 1977, the museum commissions Flavin to realize the installation (quietly, to the memory of Mia Visser) specifically for the long wall in the museum restaurant. He dedicates the work to Mia Visser, who, together with her husband Martin Visser, was one of the first collectors of Flavin's work in Europe. Since the 1970s, a large number of works from their collection have found their way to the Kröller-Müller Museum, including four of the light sculptures on display in the exhibition.
