Although the three prominent modernist artists Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman and Dan Flavin each belong to a different generation, all of them have devoted their creativity to abstract art in groundbreaking ways. Featuring each of the three artists in chronological order, so that the sequencing gives rise to enlightening nexuses, this book presents each artists' masterpieces, while juxtaposing seldom-seen works

Light, considered the purest embodiment of the divine, is the basis of all art to one degree or another, so why not make art out of light? Dan Flavin (1933-96), an innovative and prolific American sculptor who can be considered an abstract, minimalist, and installation artist, chose as his medium commercial fluorescent tubes, and with these everyday lights created works of radiant and evocative beauty. Flavin had many major shows and created a number of permanent public installations; now his work is being celebrated in a magnificent retrospective exhibition that will travel across the country. This handsomely produced volume by Govan, director of the Dia Art Foundation, and Bell, who worked with Flavin, presents exquisite photographs of Flavin's seminal light compositions and expert biographical and critical assessments. Citing Byzantine icons, William Ockham, and Barnett Newman as influences, Flavin created ravishingly beautiful colors and profoundly nuanced constructions with seemingly banal industrial materials, transforming ordinary spaces into places of wonder. For a definitive catalog see Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights, 1961-1996

In making light his primary medium, Dan Flavin (1933-1996) established himself as one of the most innovative and significant artists of the minimalist movement. A new generation encountered Flavin’s work through the critically acclaimed exhibition Dan Flavin: A Retrospective, which opened in October 2004 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Dan Flavin: New Light includes essays that respond to this exhibition and to the renewed interest in Flavin’s work and its place in 20th-century art. In this volume, six leading scholars of contemporary art consider the ambiguities and multiple resonances of Flavin’s light works. Each addresses the ontological complexity of the work--object-based, yet "situational,” and painterly in its deployment of colored light--within the insistently sculptural world of minimalism. The book’s contributors interpret this tension by exploring Flavin’s early assemblages, the relationship of drawing to his installation practice, the specificity of his materials and their operation in actual space, and the openly ambivalent place of Flavin’s work within the history of late modernism. Also available from Yale University Press: DAN FLAVIN: A RETROSPECTIVE (ISBN 0-300-10632-7) DAN FLAVIN: THE COMPLETE LIGHTS (ISBN 0-300-10633-5)

"New scholarship and interpretation of Flavin's work also appears in the form of three critical essays by experts and an extensive chronology, comprehensive bibliography, and exhibition history. In addition, this book includes Flavin's text, "'...in daylight or cool white.' an autobiographical sketch," originally published in Artforum in 1965, and two interviews with the artist - one from 1972 and the other from 1982."--BOOK JACKET.

This landmark book surveys the breadth of artist Newman's career, from his founding role in the New York School in the 1940s to his key influence on both minimalism and conceptual art in the 1960s. 3 8-page gatefolds. Over 300 illustrations.

Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full-color images, this family-oriented art resource introduces children to more than 50 great artists and their work, with corresponding activities and explorations that inspire artistic development, focused looking, and creative writing. This treasure trove of artwork from the National Gallery of Art includes, among others, works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Henri Matisse, Chuck Close, Jacob Lawrence, Pablo Picasso, and Alexander Calder, representing a wide range of artistic styles and techniques. Written by museum educators with decades of hands-on experience in both art-making activities and making art relatable to children, the activities include sculpting a clay figure inspired by Edgar Degas; drawing an object from touch alone, inspired by Joan Miro’s experience as an art student; painting a double-sided portrait with one side reflecting physical traits and the other side personality traits, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de' Benci; and creating a story based on a Mary Cassatt painting. Educators, homeschoolers, and families alike will find their creativity sparked by this art extravaganza.

This collection of work by Henri Matisse and Ellsworth Kelly is based on anxhibition of more than 100 rarely exhibited drawings organized by the Centreompidou in Paris. A comparative display, the exhibition focuses on the rolef drawing in the work of these two distinctly different 20th-century masters.Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is recognized for the lyrical form and decorativeesthetic seen in his paintings and colourful paper cut-outs. Ellsworth Kellyborn 1923) is known for the monumental abstract forms of his sculpture andhe bold colours of his hard-edge paintings. Yet both artists explored theironcepts in prolific studies of plants, often in series in which each drawingxisted on its own terms as well as part of an infinite process.