Dan Flavin, Posthumously

Art in America, Oct, 2000 by Tiffany Bell

Flavin was not given any restrictions, but he decided to leave the Richmond Hall structure unchanged. Built in 1930, it has a simple rectangular shape with a storefront and wide-open interior that allowed it to serve the changing neighborhood--first as a grocery store and later as many different bars. Flavin's installation respects the architecture of the building and the partly commercial character of the neighborhood by working in accordance with these conditions and retaining the storefront. Taking advantage of a relatively rare opportunity to work outdoors,[10] Flavin devised a horizontal line of green lights at the top of the long sides of the exterior walls. They extend an ornamental frieze on the front and enhance the blank sides of the building while simultaneously illuminating a parking lot and subtly alluding to neon signs on nearby buildings.

The entrance lobby, defined by two diagonal walls converging from the building's front corners, is lit by 16-foot lines of white light running diagonally from bottom left to upper right on both walls. While made specifically to mimic the angle of the walls they are mounted on, these lamps also recall, again, Flavin's first fluorescent-light work, the diagonal of May 25, 1963.

The main event is in the large, unbroken interior space, which is 125 feet deep and 50 feet wide. Here, an arrangement of 4-foot fixtures extends along both long walls. A horizontal line about 4 feet above the floor running the length of both long walls consists of two filtered ultraviolet lights facing into the room. Above that line, starting in the front corner and placed at 4-foot intervals, is a succession of vertically oriented single lamps facing the back wall of the room, in a sequence of pink, yellow, green and blue. Below the horizontal line is the same sequence of colors offset slightly from the ones above them and facing toward the front wall. The two walls mirror each other.

Once again, this installation derives from an earlier work. In 1973, Flavin made untitled (to Saskia, Sixtina, Thordis) for a room at the Kunsthalle in Cologne measuring 164 by 72 feet. The configuration of lights was the same except that the horizontal band of lamps was blue and the sequence extended from left to right as you faced each wall; therefore, on one side the upper lamps faced the back wall and the lower lamps the front, and the other side was the reverse.

Though the differences between these two works seem minor, their effects are significant. In the earlier work, photos suggest that the abundance of blue light produced a bluish tone throughout the room. In comparison, the ultraviolet tubes in Houston cast very little visible light. They form a subdued, dark-purple line. According to Morse, Flavin's assistant, ultraviolet light was chosen for its ability to blend the other colors. The same four colors used in Marfa appear here, but the result is entirely different. Rather than contrasting, they work together, completing the spectrum and producing an overall white light throughout the space. The coloristic effects are localized. Units of color project from the lamps and reflect on the backs of the next fixture along the wall, as well as bouncing faintly onto the ceiling. The light filling the central part of the room is rather disconcerting. One recognizes it as very much like the bright daylight outside, yet it is artificially made. (A small skylight that does not supply a great deal of natural light to the overall space provides a reference point.) The grand scale and decorative array dissolve into the brilliant yet empty interior space.