An Iconostasis for Icons III and IV

This drawing depicts two pieces from a series of works entitled Icons, which were hand-crafted by the artist in the early 1960s. Made of painted wood and incorporating incandescent or fluorescent light, these pieces were early explorations of light and show Flavin's concern with placement and composition in his large-scale installations of fluorescent lights. These Icons hinted at the artist’s nuanced teenage relationship with the Church, suggesting that the physical presence of religious icons and rituals can often supersede its symbolic content.

The present drawing, An Iconostasis for Icons III and IV, is signed on all four edges, indicating that the works could be viewed from any side. A similar work, Iconostases (for Icons I, II, III, and IV), was included in the artist’s 2005 Retrospective catalogue at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. An Iconostasis for Icons III and IV was once part of esteemed Pop and Minimal Art collector, Robert Scull’s, collection and was also published in Isabelle Dervaux’s Morgan Library Catalogue, Dan Flavin: Drawing from 2012.