Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II

Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II, 1971 (Portland Art Museum) Speakers: Jillian Punska, Kate Burns

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Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II

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Kate: I'm Kate Burns. I'm the educational specialist for the Portland Art Museum.
Jillian: Hi I'm Jillian Punska. I am the artist and family program specialist in the education department.
Kate: And we are standing in front of the Dan Falvin.
It is entitled, "Untitled (to Donna) II" and this piece is... was created in 1971 by Flavin,
like five or so years after he started creating works, mainly of florescent lightbulb fixtures.
Jillian: Right so it's made completely of florescent light fixtures.. um..
...two verticle pieces that are faced toward the wall, and two horizontal pieces that are faced towards the viewer that are both yellow.
And the ones that are facing the wall are blue on the right and red on the left.
Well, it is not red actually, it's more of a pink, which makes me wonder... kind of... was he going for primary colors and then he couldn't find a red?
Do you know what colors he had to work with Kate?
Kate: I know that the florescent lights he was using were available in about ten different colors.
And they were red, blue, green, yellow, pink and some different variations of white. So, some of his work does have red in it.
Umm... but I think in this case, maybe he was trying to do something different. I don't know.
But I really like how, you know, the pink is on the left hand side of the piece but it casts a pink color field of light on the right hand side of the wall.
Kate: This piece is...
Jillian: It illuminates it
Kate: ...yeah. This piece is butted up against a corner of the gallery... and I think he probably, you know, would have put that piece in the same place, if... if he had a choice.
Jillian: It is very specific to the corner. Uh... and also if the wall wasn't white it would be a different work of art.
Kate: Yeah... that is really interesting too.
Jillian: It's interesting how the wall is really flat. It almost looks like it is the main part of the piece.
That the... uh... materials that he is working with really frame the wall like a picture frame would frame a painting.
Kate: Yea... it does and it kind of flattens the space. I guess it almost obliterates the corner.
You know the space plays a large part in this piece and if you're looking straight on, and you're not even looking at the floor, you might not even notice that it is in a corner.
And I think that's kind of what he is going for too. He really did want to work with the light, and not the aesthetics of the piece.
Jillian: It is interesting that Flavin made a corner as beautiful as a painting.
He definitely did.

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Minimalism & the Land

Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II, 1971 (Portland Art Museum) Speakers: Jillian Punska, Kate Burns

Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Donna) II

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