Categorie
CHIESA ROSSA
Milano (Italia).
SANTA MARIA ANNUNCIATA IN CHIESA ROSSA – Milano (Italia)
Progetto Architetto GIOVANNI MUZIO (1932)
Installazione site specific permanente Autore DAN FLAVIN “Untitled” (1996)
FONDAZIONE PRADA.
http://www.fondazioneprada.org/ita/dan_flavin_chiesa.swf
DAN FLAVIN (New York, 1933- 1996)
Dan Flavin was one of the leading
exponents of Minimal Art, together with Sol LeWitt,
Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Carl Andre. In 1962 Flavin
exhibited the results of his first artistic experiments with
electric light: square boxes with their fronts painted in
monochrome and electric light bulbs round the edges
that he described as “icons”. In 1963 he rejected all forms
of painting in favour of simple, plain, mass-produced
neon tubes, which were the only materials he used until
his death. Through the systematic application of the limited
vocabulary of the light fittings and the colours and sizes
of the tubes on sale, Flavin developed an art form having
a practically unlimited sculptural potential.
One of his greatest interests was in architecture, espe-
cially the relationship between his art and its architectural
setting. The artist’s last work, specifically designed for
Santa Maria in Chiesa Rossa in Milan, was completed by
Flavin just two days before his death in 1996. Having never
accepted any symbolic or spiritual interpretations of his
work, Flavin ended his career with an installation costru-
cted inside a church, which effectively terminated the
cycle beginning with the “icons”. In this the transcenden-
tal aspirations of art contrast in measured equilibrium
with the everyday routine represented by the neon tubes.
On the occasion of the presentation to the public of Dan
Flavin’s permanent installation in Santa Maria in Chiesa
Rossa and an exhibition of the artist’s works at the Fonda-
zione Prada, a book was published. Edited by Germano
Celant, it contains writings on the relationship between
art and religion, modern art and places of worship, the
space of ritual socialization and the space of the imagi-
nary world.