"monument" 1 for V. Tatlin
Dan Flavin
American, 1933–1996
1964
A pared-down 'monument' made from fluorescent tubes and metal fixtures in which Flavin turns ordinary commercial light into a simple, reverent, totemic form that nods to Vladimir Tatlin’s tower.
What strikes you is the cool, even fluorescence stacked into a stepped vertical silhouette—the bulbs’ halos softening industrial materials into a calm, luminous presence against the wall.
By using off-the-shelf fluorescent lamps as his medium, Flavin helped redefine sculpture in the 1960s, linking Minimalist reduction and site-specific light art to earlier avant‑garde ideas about monumentality.
Medium
Fluorescent light and metal fixtures
Dimensions
8' x 23 1/8" x 4 1/2" (243.8 x 58.7 x 10.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of UBS
Accession
304.1992.a-h
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
