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Project

When Art Turned DayGlo, Marking the Impact of Daylight Fluorescent Materials in New York Art from the 60s and 70s.

This research focusses on art containing daylight fluorescent colors, created in New York during the 60's and 70's. This topic has practically been completely neglected in the art historical literature, leaving the impact which fluorescence had on the history of art and art criticism, undetermined. My earlier historical and material-technical analyses of the use of fluorescent colors by Herb Aach and Frank Stella will be the starting point. These will be expanded and further elaborated. I will then consider New York artists who were active in the same period, such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Fred Sandback and Keith Sonnier. In order to discuss the selection of works, a new language must be developed that allows adequate description of the experience and the effects caused by fluorescent colors. This language will be developed through the means of archival research, analysis of art historical literature, material-technical enquiry and henomenological investigation. At this stage, a provisory taxonomy of fluorescent phenomena in art will be at hand, which will be expanded and revised through experiments in perceptual psychology and subsequently integrated in the new language. This will enable a correct assessment of the of the considered works. On the basis of this, the place and the role of fluorescence in the oeuvre of the artists will be considered, along with a reevaluation of the art criticism of the 60's and 70's.
Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2020
Keywords:FLUORESCENT MATERIALS
Disciplines:Conservation-restoration science, History of art
Project type:Collaboration project