Dan Flavin, Untitled (For Ksenija)
In the organizer's words:
The art building of the municipal gallery in Munich's Lenbachhaus, designed by architects Uwe Kiessler + Partner, was opened in 1994. The underground exhibition hall, whose dimensions correspond to the subway station below, gave the Lenbachhaus a new dimension for exhibiting art.
To mark the opening, Dan Flavin (1933-1996) developed one of his last "Situations". Flavin described works created for a specific location as "situations", in which the focus is on light space and perception.
No work is as closely associated with the Kunstbau as "Untitled (For Ksenija)". This late work confirms Flavin's ongoing artistic exploration in the field of tension between light art and architecture. Flavin transforms the exhibition space by illuminating it as a space of experience. Electric light, color, space and the bodies and senses of the visitors enter into an inseparable, diffusing interaction.
As an important representative of Minimal Art - an art movement that incorporates industrially manufactured materials and radically reduces personal expression - Flavin consciously turned away from the illusionistic imagery of painting, the gestural expression of Abstract Expressionism and the figurative language of Pop Art. His works always refer to their spatial surroundings, whereby the perception of the viewer and their relationship to space become integral components of the work.
After starting out in painting, from the mid-1960s Dan Flavin worked exclusively with standardized, commercially available fluorescent lamps, which he used as artistic material in varying arrangements. From then on, his minimalist pencil drawings served as a precise conceptual basis for these installations.
On March 8, 1994, the Lenbachhaus received a fax from the Dan Flavin Studio in New York containing such a minimalist drawing study. It records both the concept and the specific specifications for the installation of the fluorescent lamps on the lighting track of the Kunstbau and documents the artistic conception of the work. Flavin developed these drawings into operable structures that could be realized as a new, independent model for each exhibition.
Colored fluorescent lamps are installed along the four architecturally defined lighting tracks of the Kunstbau. Their physical presence recedes in favor of an experiential space that is completely determined by the light. This not only illuminates the architecture, but also has a profound effect on visitors' self-perception: Movement, light adaptation and color perception become elements of an aesthetic experience that encourages reflection on space, body and perception.
Heiner and Philippa Friedrich donated "Untitled (For Ksenija)" to the Lenbachhaus in memory of their parents Erika and Harald Friedrich as well as Dominique and John de Menil. The installation is firmly anchored in the collection and is now being shown for the tenth time in the spirit of the donors.
Further information on the work and the exhibition history can be found in the rotunda of the Kunstbau.
Following the presentation of Dan Flavin's "Situation" "Untitled (For Ksenija)", a collaborative project with acoustic works by students from Florian Hecker's "Sound and Experiment" program (Bayerisches Spitzenprofessurenprogramm - Akademie der Bildenden Künste München) will open up a new experiential space in the Kunstbau from 2 to 7 December 2025.
We dedicate these presentations to the memory of the architect Uwe Kiessler (1937-2025), whose outstanding contribution had a lasting impact on Munich's architecture and culture.
This content has been machine translated.Location
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