Flavin’s breakthrough with fluorescent light was the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi). In this seminal work—the artist’s first to use fluorescent light alone—Flavin eliminated the square box of the icons, and instead positioned a single, unadorned yellow fluorescent light at a 45-degree angle against a gallery wall. Struck by the result, Flavin declared the "gold" tube his "diagonal of personal ecstasy." He went on to describe that, (continue)
