About the Work
Consisting of 132 fluorescent tubes, the installation 'Untitled (for Professor Klaus Gallwitz)' was assembled by Dan Flavin in the exhibition building of the Städel Museum in 1993. The tubes have been arranged in the spaces between the pairs of pillars on the ground floor. The fluorescent light floods the space and makes its specific qualities part of the work. The funnel-shaped spread on the ceiling and the reflection in the stone floor - which create formal links to painting - result from the positioning of the tubes between the pillars, which only partially permits the light to radiate outwards. Flavin is one of the main representatives of Minimal Art, who established a new concept of artworks through the use of industrially manufactured objects and their arrangement in the exhibition space. In order to comprehend the work in its entirety, the visitor must move through the space and the coloured light. The physical directness and the process of grasping the installation make viewers aware of their own position in the exhibition space and vis-á-vis the art object.
