Artist Dan FLavin, A survey of current works and Designs

To Be Enlightened, You Pull the Switch In Washington, pilots now passing over this city at night have been reporting a weird green light emanating from the East Building of the National Gallery. That would be the art of Dan Flavin, the American avatar of the fluorescent tube. The light comes from "Untitled (To You, Heiner, With Admiration and Affection)," a low, fencelike barrier, 110 feet long, spanning one side of the atrium's broad mezzanine. Typically …

…room of red, white and blue fluorescents, a work Flavin dedicated to the French Republic, and feel the voltage of color as a visceral charge. Other artists, now forgotten, employed light during the 60's, but Flavin has lasted for a reason. It's not because of the novelty of his materials but because he was a gifted formalist. Color, space, the legacy of pure abstraction -- via off-the-shelf hardware. Sometimes, Flavin demonstrated, just enough is plenty.