ILLUMINATING LACMA BRINGS DAN FLAVIN'S WORK BACK INTO THE SPOTLIGHT.

Byline: Jim Farber

Staff Writer

Efficient, cheap and readily available, fluorescent lighting is pretty much taken for granted.

Well, it was until May 25, 1963, when an iconoclastic young artist named Dan Flavin saw in the humble lamp an exciting new instrument for artistic expression.

The first piece he created featured a single vibrantly glowing 8-foot yellow fluorescent lamp set in its white ballast, plugged in and mounted diagonally on the wall. He titled it "the diagonal of May 25, 1963," adding in parentheses "(to Constantin Brancusi)," an oblique reference to the Romanian sculptor's "Endless Column."

For the next 33 years (until his death in 1996), like a composer obsessively creating variations on a theme, Flavin generated a succession of fluorescent light sculptures and elaborate architectural installations that brought him worldwide acclaim.

There were exquisite single pieces such as "untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim)" from 1977. But even more impressive were the grandly scaled site-specific installations Flavin conceived, including his 1971 rainbow-hued illumination of Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

In October 2004, Michael Govan, as president of the Dia Art Foundation, curated (with assistance from Tiffany Bell) the first major Flavin retrospective for the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Since then, the exhibit and its curator have traveled extensively -- the exhibit to museums in America and Europe, and Govan to Los Angeles, where a year ago he became the director and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

So, it makes perfect sense that Govan would want to bring his luminous curatorial effort, "Dan Flavin: A Retrospective," to LACMA.

"It's very Los Angeles," says Govan jovially. "It's the only show where you can wear your sunglasses outside and keep wearing them when you're inside."

At a time when the art world was still rooted in abstract expressionism and was just beginning to delve into the Campbell's soup-can fetishism of pop art, Flavin's cool, minimalist hardware-store creations were revolutionary.

"He wanted to create art that was absolutely accessible," explains Govan, his face cast in various shades of pink and green by the light of Flavin's sculptures. "You can walk in and get it immediately. Of course, behind it there are a thousand historical references, whether it's to Brancusi, Mondrian, Matisse, the failed Utopian notions of the Russian avant-garde artist Vladimir Tatlin, George McGovern or the Vietnam War."

These references, which Flavin clearly intended and are referenced in his parenthetical titles, are nonetheless exceedingly subtle. The impact of the work itself, however, is undeniable.

"His ideas of accessibility extended to the materials," Govan said. "You could buy them in a hardware store. But if you think of art in terms of a transformation of materials, Flavin's transformation of the fluorescent fixture into art becomes magical. ... He liked the limitation of the format. It became a fantastic challenge. Who knew you could make a career out of that?"

Night time is right time

Ideally, the best time to view the exhibit is at night when the colors are at their most vibrant.

As you enter, the first gallery is devoted to Flavin's early work. Called "Icons," these pieces represent Flavin experimenting with minimally painted canvases festooned with bare light bulbs and fluorescent strips.

It's in the subsequent galleries that Flavin's work really begins to shine, as he systematically develops his conceptual ideas and comes to terms with the medium. He begins by using various arrangements in shades of white and in accenting colors.

Then there is a breakthrough piece, "untitled (to the "innovator" of Wheeling Peachblow)" from 1966, when Flavin begins to double-mount fixtures. The effect is dynamic, as it produces a foreground and background cast of saturated and blending colors that impact the eye both directly and as reflected light off the white walls of the galleries. It is an effect that reaches a zenith in Flavin's glowing masterpiece, "untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim)."

Three corridors

"The main new project of the exhibition that is special to this venue is the three corridors, which were originally made for the Hauserman showroom at the Pacific Design Center. They've been re-created inch by inch," said Govan.

These corridors provide the exhibit's most interactive element. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, patrons wander these fluorescent passages bombarded on all sidesby saturated colors -- explosive yellows, incandescent corals and azure blues.

"Flavin had this uncanny sense of how to bridge the high and the low of the everyday, with the highest aspirations of art," Govan says.

"I could speak for hours about these pieces and their historical references. But you don't need it."

Jim Farber 310-540-5511, Ext. 416

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DAN FLAVIN: A RETROSPECTIVE

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Noon to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; noon to 9 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Through Aug. 12.

Tickets: $9, $5 seniors and students, free for children.

Information: [phone] or www.lacma.org

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) The three corridors that artist Dan Flavin originally made for the Hauserman showroom at the Pacific Design Center have been re-created for LACMA. Visitors can wander down the brightly lit hallways of the interactive exhibit.

(3 -- color) At left: Pink, yellow, blue and green fluorescent lights illuminate a corner.

(4 -- color) Below: Dan Flavin's, "untitled (to a man, George McGovern) 2, 1972," is also on display.

(5 -- color) Bottom: One of Flavin's first works was a yellow fluorescent light, 8 feet long on the diagonal.

Courtesy Dia Art Foundation