Artist Nine: Dan Flavin

Dan Flavin was born in 1933 in New York and lived there until he joined the Air Force in 1953.  He had started drawing at an early age and had pursued art class, as they were available to him.  After his time in the Air Force he tried his hand at art schools and spent three semesters at Columbia University with the intention of become an art historian, but gave up on that.  Flavin then took odd jobs including working in the mailroom at the Guggenheim and as a guard at The Museum of Modern Art.  He married Sonja Severdija in 1961 and together they worked on the construction of the Icon pieces.  By the mid 1960s Flavin had stopped using canvases in his work and focused solely on the fluorescent lights that he used to create each piece.  His art is classified as minimalist but he preferred to refer to himself as a maximalist.  As he continued his work he began working on large-scale installations that were very site specific, many of these projects were later abandoned.  One that he did see through was an extensive light installation for the opening of the new Guggenheim building in 1992.  Because of his extensive work with light he really paved the way for other light artists yet to come.