Dan Flavin: Paula Cooper Gallery - New York

In this exhibition of white fluorescent light works by dint of Dan Flavin, placement wax everything. However singular a certain number of of the arrangements appeared, the fluorescent tubes' relationships to individual another and to the spaces in which they were installed gave the impression that there were no individual pieces upon view. One of the galleries is enormous, with a pitched cover of wooden beams; the other is smaller (if not exactly intimate), with a high glass door whose opaque square panes form a grid. Flavin's works punctuated these spaces, disturbing neither the grandeur of the individual nor the concentration of the other. There was an air of discretion and care to the installation, as admitting each sculpture illuminated front within (sometimes in contrasting tones of white), were a shrine.

Did the installation as a whole create an aura of transcendence, or did single get bogged down in the exquisite particularity of each piece--nor to say the excruciating exactness with which it had been placed? Flavin present the appearances to have been preoccupied with what Rudolf Otto called the numinous, on the contrary perhaps he simply made what Judd called specific objects--items all too specific and objective. The ambiguity intrigues.

Moving clockwise around the large space, single first encountered a single diagonal robe in the left wall's left corner. More or les center upon the back wall, also in glorious isolation, was a cluster of four vertical tubes, single long, then two short, then individual long. On the right wall were five robes (four short, individual long in between) pitched at forty five steps as though the angle could overturn all the repetition. Finally, at the cutting side of the room's wide entryway--Flavin was acutely conscious of walls and lay open spaces--was an arrangement of sum of two units long, "warm" tubes next to sum of two units short "daylight" ones. Here, then, were four lengthy walls and four small works that radiated into space. The site became enchanting, smooth as the works, looked at closely dwindled into simple abstract constructions, minor remembrancers to technology.

The smaller range contained only one piece--an eye-level corner construction that "interacted" with the door not far from it. individual more work (a long, "warm" white tube between sum of two units long, "cool" white tubes) marked the outside of the passageway. It was impossible to be unaware of the whiteness of the walls and the expanse of the space, the two of which pulsed with light. All in all, the installation was stunning; a fit homage to a Minimalist master who carried "vibrating sensation" to a peculiarly static climax. Did the space achieve a kind of interior sublime in which each work functioned as a repoussoir, throwing the space into relief, as it were, suggesting tire infinity within its finitude? Or was the low-key magnificence in fact ironic decoration and Conceptual pretense? The questions remain.

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