It Is What It Is

Dan Flavin (1933-1996) was one of the most significant and influential artists of his generation. His radical use of fluorescent light during and beyond the 1960s forever changed the definitions and boundaries of sculptural practice. Flavin stood alone in art practice; he was neither a painter nor a sculptor, but occupied a place somewhere between sculpture and installation. It Is What It Is fills a timely gap on reading available on Dan Flavin. Paula Feldman and Karsten Schubert have pieced together a chronological anthology spanning four decades. It contains 59 essays and reviews, a number of which are published here for the first time in English, charting the gradual evolution of a consensus about the meaning of Flavin's art. The authors include some of the most influential art historians, critics and artists of today. This comprehensive volume uncovers the formidable challenge posed to these authors of writing about an artist and an artform for which they had no pre-rehearsed discourse to rely on. It is an indispensable anthology on one of the central figures of Minimalism.