American painter and creator of installations, Dan Flavin studied initially at a seminary in Brooklyn, New York. In 1954, he continued his studies at the University of Maryland Extension Program in OsanNi in Korea and, in 1956, at the New College for Social Research in New York. Between 1957 and 1959, he studied Art History at Columbia University. His work at the end of the 50s and early 60s was influenced by contemporary American art and basically consisted of abstract constructions to which other objects were added. In 1961, he began producing Minimalist works, using fluorescent or incandescent electric lights as in Icon I (1961). The use of lights and the titles of the installations themselves reveal the religious connotation of the traditional association of light with the divine and the sacred. Dan Flavin rapidly extended this until it became his particular style: the creation of installations mostly of a temporary nature. In 1966, he took part in the Minimal Art exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York. In 1968 and 1977, he took part in Documenta 4 and 6, in Kassel. In 1992, he produced neon installations at the Guggenheim Museum and, in 1996, decorated the façade of the Berlin Museum of Modern Art.
