3 X 3: FLAVIN, ANDRE, JUDD

January 14 – February 19, 2005
Opening: Thursday, January 13, 2005 from 5:30 pm to 8 pm
 
From January 14 to February 19, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery presents 3 x 3: Flavin, Andre, Judd. This exhibition of sculptures, prints, drawings, and archival documents highlights the art of three leading figures of Minimalism: Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, and Donald Judd. It provides viewers with an occasion to see some of the ways in which their works challenged traditional modes of artistic production and representation during a seminal period in the history of Modern Art.
 
Everyday fluorescent lighting is transformed by Dan Flavin into sculptures that explore the material and phenomenal properties of light. Carl Andre is best known for his innovative floor and corner pieces that delineate architectural spaces within the gallery setting. Donald Judd’s use of colour, composition, and surface is carefully regimented in constructions that blur the distinctions between sculpture and painting. As a whole, their art favours industrial fabrication, the installation of repetitious forms in space, and abstraction over hand-made craftsmanship, the uniqueness of the art object, and figurative representation. Flavin, Andre, and Judd question the role of the individual artist as creator as well as those conventions of subject matter that dominated North American artistic practices up until the mid-twentieth century.
 
3 x 3: Flavin, Andre, Judd is curated by Diana Nemiroff, Curator of Modern Art at the National Gallery of Canada. It is accompanied by an illustrated exhibition catalogue with a bilingual essay by Diana Nemiroff.
 
The works in this exhibition are part of the National Gallery’s collection of Minimalist art, one of North America’s most significant collections in that area. The exhibition is organized and toured by the National Gallery of Canada. The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the assistance of The Canada Council for the Arts.