4.2

Senior Years Activity

Research Duchamp and Flavin

Dan Flavin - untitled (to Jan and Ron Greenberg) 1972-73

Dan FLAVIN
American 1933–96
untitled (to Jan and Ron Greenberg) 1972–73
yellow and green fluorescent light, edition 1/3
246.4 x 213.4 x 25.4 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Panza Collection
© Dan Flavin/ARS, New York. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia
Photo by David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
91.3708

For	Senior Years students
Curriculum	VCE Art
Aim	To research the influence of Marcel Duchamp upon Flavin's work.
Preparation	To do this activity you will need to: Read the information for Theme Four – The 1960s and 1970s: Minimalism, Post-Minimalism and Conceptual Art. View the work either online or in the exhibition. Research through the library or Internet.
Individual Task	Flavin’s work has been called a ‘Neo-Duchampian readymade’. Research the seminal artist Marcel Duchamp and his importance to Modern and Contemporary Art. How might Flavin have been influenced by Duchamp?
Research Questions	Who was Marcel Duchamp? What was the importance of his contribution to Modern Art? What is a readymade? Find examples of Duchamp’s readymades. What do you think Duchamp was trying to achieve with his readymade sculptures? Do you think Flavin’s Untitled (to Jan and Ron Greenberg) 1972–1973, is like a Duchamp readymade? Identify similarities and disimilarities. Robert Morris, a Post-Minimalist artist, wrote: "The object has not become less important. It has merely become less self-important." What do you think Morris means? In what ways do the works of Duchamp and Flavin make the object “less self-important”?