untitled (to Elita and her baby, Cintra)

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

The fact that what I think to put forth as art might not be so readily understandable, but in a separate fashion, might be absorbed contextually—I don’t look upon that with regret . . . I don’t want to make a cathedral. -- Dan Flavin

In Dan Flavin’s work, light becomes both subject and medium. Rather than abstracting recognizable forms into static shapes and colors, Flavin’s fluorescent tubes (objects in themselves) emit a light that fills the room, casts shadows, and bathes viewers in its glow. His work is also subtly kinetic; the pulsing and flowing electricity inside the bulb is often perceptible. This flow can produce a faint hum that can change in frequency and tone as the bulb ages, involving viewers aurally as well.

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Course History

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Exhibition History

Acquisitions 1974-1978, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss & Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 8, 1978-January 21, 1979.

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31, 1992.

Light in Art, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss & Barrows Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 2-January 29, 1978.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26, 2009-March 15, 2010.

Permanent Collection and Recent Acquisitions, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 1975-February 15, 1976.

Second Stage of Modernism: Art from 1945 to the present, Jaffe-Hall, Lanthrop, Friends and Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 6-August 16, 1987.

Twentieth Century Works from the Dartmouth Collection, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 19-May 29, 1988.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009, p.101, no.76.

Provenance

Leo Castelli, New York, New York; given to present collection, 1975.

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Subjects