Second Sails [11] from Second Sails
1978
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
one from a portfolio of eight hardground etchings on wove Arches paper
Dimensions
image: 10.2 x 15.2 cm (4 x 6 in.) sheet: 28.6 x 38.1 cm (11 1/4 x 15 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kathan Brown
Accession Number
1997.8.53.8
Art Historical Context
Dan Flavin, a pioneering minimalist artist best known for his immersive installations of fluorescent light tubes, ventured into printmaking with *Second Sails [11]*, created in 1978 as part of a portfolio of eight hardground etchings. This work on wove Arches paper—measuring just 10. x 15.2 cm for the image—capturesavin's signature precision and economy of form, translating his sculptural interest in light, space, and geometry into two dimensions. Hardground etching, a meticulous intaglio technique, involves coating a metal plate with a protective ground, scratching designs through it, and et...
About the Artist
Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin (1933–1996) was an American minimalist artist known exclusively for his sculptures and installations made from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. Born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, he studied art history at Columbia University and attended the Hans Hofmann School before beginning his artistic career in the early 1960s. Flavin's breakthrough came in 1963 with "the diagon...