Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967

David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Dan Flavin (1933–1996) at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location in New York. Presented in adjacent rooms of the Upper East Side townhouse, the works on view re-create two groundbreaking exhibitions that Flavin mounted in 1967 at New York’s Kornblee Gallery, then located at the nearby and architecturally similar 58 East 79th Street.

In one gallery, a series of six vertically oriented works in cool white light, each varying slightly from one another, punctuate the space, making a subtle incursion into the existing architecture; whereas in the opposite gallery a work composed of six diagonals dramatically washes the space in green light. Made only a few years after Flavin began working with commercially available fluorescent lamps, these installations (or “situations,” as the artist preferred to call them) provide insight into Flavin's distinct strategy for conceptualizing, activating, and transforming space with light and color. The exhibition will be supplemented by the artist’s preparatory drawings as well as other archival materials documenting these early shows.

A concurrent exhibition, Dan Flavin: colored fluorescent light, will be on view at the gallery’s London location.

Image: Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Location

34 East 69th Street New York New York, 10021

Dates

January 10—April 15, 2023

Gallery Hours

Tues—Sat 10am–6pm

Artist

Kornblee Gallery 1967

Dan Flavin, 1968. © 2023 Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Dan Flavin, 1968. © 2023 Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“I believe that art is shedding its vaulted mystery for a common sense of keenly realized decoration. Symbolizing is dwindling—becoming slight. We are pressing downward toward no art—a mutual sense of psychologically indifferent decoration—a neutral pleasure of seeing known to everyone.”

—Dan Flavin, “Some Remarks,” Artforum, December 1966

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1966

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1966

Beginning in 1963, Dan Flavin produced a prodigious body of work that used commercially available fluorescent lamps to create installations (or “situations,” as he preferred to call them) of light and color. Through these light constructions, Flavin was able to establish and redefine space.

In 1967, Kornblee gallery in New York held two exhibitions of Flavin’s work. The first, in January, featured six vertical works in cool white light. Each varying slightly from one another, the works are positioned in corners, alongside the door frame, and around the fireplace, as at Kornblee, making a subtle incursion into the existing architecture. The second exhibition, which took place in October of that year, presented a single work composed of six diagonals—three repeating sets of two—that dramatically washed the space in green light.

Working checklists for two shows to be presented at Kornblee Gallery, hand-drawn by Flavin with specifications for the works to be included in each show.

Working checklists for two shows to be presented at Kornblee Gallery, hand-drawn by Flavin with specifications for the works to be included in each show.

“For a few years, I have deployed a system of diagramming designs for fluorescent light in situations. Of course, I was not immediately aware of that convenience and its inherently fascinating changes.... Now, the system does not proceed; it is simply applied.... Each one merely awaits coordination again and again. Sometimes, adjustments or new variants are implied. Then, and only then, do I think to move my pencil once more. I am delighted by this understanding.”

—Dan Flavin, “Some Other Comments,” Artforum, 1967

Dan Flavin, diagrams for 1967 Kornblee cool white works

Dan Flavin, diagrams for 1967 Kornblee cool white works

Dan Flavin, diagrams for 1967 Kornblee cool white works

Dan Flavin, diagrams for 1967 Kornblee cool white works

For the Kornblee exhibition, Flavin used only cool white lamps; paired vertical combinations of fixtures with a total height of eight feet (244 cm); and placement at the edges, corners, and centers of the walls.

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1967

cool white fluorescent light

8 ft. (244 cm) high
Edition of 3

“From its inception, Flavin's art was especially sensitive to arrangement and context, and this quickly led to his thinking in terms of whole-room installations—an idea that radically altered the course of art-making in the 1960s.”

—Michael Govan, in Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights 1961–1996, 2004

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1967

cool white fluorescent light

8 ft. (244 cm) high
Edition of 3

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1966-1967

cool white fluorescent light

8 ft. (244 cm) high
Edition of 3

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1967

cool white fluorescent light

8 ft. (244 cm) high
Edition of 3

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1967

cool white fluorescent light

8 ft. (244 cm) high
Edition of 3

The following text was printed on the invitation card for Flavin’s October 1967 exhibition at the Kornblee Gallery:

“the plan: a particular interior spatial situational system of self-mimicking counterpoised diagonally resolved wall fastened lamp aggregations in green fluorescent light, the six required to be positioned on three of the four walls at successively available edge to edge, for instance, from metal edging strip along the base of the wallboard partitioning to the out-side of the door frame molding and of unequally contrasted (depending upon variance in manufacture) end against end additions of two then four foot rapid start strips parallel and contiguous to each other, both totaling about eight feet in length with the excess measurement divided equally—off at either end. Dan Flavin”

Invitation card for Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, New York, October 7–November 8, 1967 (back)

Invitation card for Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, New York, October 7–November 8, 1967 (back)

Draft of text written by Flavin to describe his installation for his October–November 1967 show at Kornblee Gallery that was printed on the invitation card.

Draft of text written by Flavin to describe his installation for his October–November 1967 show at Kornblee Gallery that was printed on the invitation card.

January 9, 1968 issue of Look Magazine, featuring a portrait by Arnold Newman of Dan Flavin in his October 7–November 8, 1967 exhibition at Kornblee Gallery. The image was included in a roundup of gallery shows.

January 9, 1968 issue of Look Magazine, featuring a portrait by Arnold Newman of Dan Flavin in his October 7–November 8, 1967 exhibition at Kornblee Gallery. The image was included in a roundup of gallery shows.

“Flavin’s ‘proposals’ usually take possession of an entire room, making it part of, rather than a container for, the effect.”

—Look Magazine, 1968

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

Dan Flavin, preparatory drawing for Kornblee Gallery, 1967

“By 1967,” Tiffany Bell writes, “he was using the entire room for an integrated installation of related elements. He devised systems that progressed around the room and that derived partially from characteristics specific to the existing architecture of the gallery.... The plan designs the work.”

Dan Flavin

untitled, 1967

green fluorescent light

8-foot (244 cm) modules; six total on three walls

“In making this installation, Flavin became aware of a phenomenal effect: As the human eye adjusts to the intensity of the all-green room, the lamps and the light emitted begin to look white and any available natural light or white artificial light looks pink. A surprise to Flavin here, it was an effect he later incorporated more deliberately.”

—Tiffany Bell and David Gray, Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights 1961–1996, 2004

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

Installation view, Dan Flavin, Kornblee Gallery, 58 East 79th Street, New York, January 7–February 2, 1967

“The intensity of green light, after a short time, appears to wash out to an almost white light as the eye compensates for its effect. The unusual characteristics of large amounts of emitted colored light, as opposed to paint reflecting light off a dense surface, provided Flavin with a territory of artistic investigation that hadn't entirely been predicted by his earliest experiments. The relative and continuously changing visual perception of the color of ambient light became another extension of the artistic properties of Flavin's ‘electric light defining space.’”

—Michael Govan, Irony and Light, 2004

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

On View in London

Dan Flavin: colored fluorescent light

A green fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, called untitled, dated 1967.

A green fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, called untitled, dated 1967.

A green fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, called untitled, dated 1967.

A green fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, called untitled, dated 1967.

A green fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, called untitled, dated 1967.

An installation view of the exhibition, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023.

An installation view of the exhibition, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023.

An installation view of the exhibition, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023.

An installation view of the exhibition, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023.

An installation view of the exhibition, Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023.

Download Fact Sheet