Tribune News Network
DOHA
Qatar Museums (QM) recently opened the first in-depth presentation worldwide in nearly two decades of the work of the closely linked artists Dan Flavin (1933–1996) and Donald Judd (1928–1994). The exhibition is also the first major presentation of Flavin and Judd’s works in the MENA region.
Dan Flavin and Donald Judd were considered two of the founders of minimalism, the widely influential art movement that broke free from traditional notions of painting and sculpture to focus on experiencing real space and materials. They met in 1962 in New York, and quickly became central figures among a cohort of artists including Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain, Yayoi Kusama, Sol Lewitt, Claes Oldenburg, and Frank Stella, who were charting the new terrain between painting and sculpture.
‘Dan Flavin | Donald Judd: Doha’ is organised by QM in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It is curated by Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg, director, and Jennifer King, associate curator of contemporary art, of LACMA.
Featuring 37 works by Flavin and 25 works by Judd, the exhibition focuses on the artists’ shared engagement with material, colour and form. Spanning the 1960s through the 1990s, the exhibition will highlight works from the collection of QM, as well as important loans from other museums, private collections, the Dan Flavin Estate and the Judd Foundation.
The exhibition is organised with works by both the artists installed in the three central galleries, demonstrating their intersecting concerns and practices. The galleries flanking this central section are dedicated separately to each artist.
Highlights of Dan Flavin | Donald Judd: Doha include:
Flavin’s early lightwork the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi), 1963, was related to the Constantin Brancusi sculpture Endless Column
Works from Flavin’s ‘monument’ for V Tatlin series using cool white florescent lights of different lengths in varying arrangements.
A number of the works that were shown in the landmark exhibition dan flavin: fluorescent light in 1964 at New York’s Green Gallery
A large-scale installation by Flavin, alternating pink and ‘gold’, 1976
A landmark Judd work, untitled, 1964, that marks the artist’s transition between painting and sculpture.
A group of metal progression works intended to be shown in buildings Judd designed, but never completed, in Marfa, Texas at the Chinati Foundation, which have never been exhibited as a group outside Marfa
Judd’s untitled, 1986, the artist’s largest wall work in plywood and plexiglass comprised of thirty units.
The exhibition is a legacy project of the 2021 Year of Culture between Qatar and the US, a yearlong cultural exchange designed to deepen the understanding between two nations and their people.
The exhibition will run until February 2024. To book tickets, visit https://qm.org.qa/en/.
