Architecture and light become one at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis as it plays host to the work of Dan Flavin through October 2008. In the main gallery, Flavin's blue and green fluorescent installation?untitled, 1984?is juxtaposed with Ellsworth Kelly's Blue Black, 2000, an artwork of painted aluminum panels that is part of the Pulitzer's permanent collection.
Using an artistic palette of commercially available fluorescent products in standardized sizes, shapes, and colors, Flavin's work gives new meaning to these everyday objects. One of Flavin's few curved works, untitled, 1964, is a series of cool white fluorescent lamps. Installed in the mezzanine, its curvilinear shape accentuates the Pulitzer's geometric form.
At night, the fluorescent hues of Flavin's work illuminate the galleries as the building's interiors and surfaces are transformed into volumetric and luminous expressions of space.
Flavin's work engages with its surroundings, each piece positioned to specifically address the architecture while simultaneously breaking the conventions of formal art display.
