In Washington, pilots now passing over this city at night have been reporting a weird green light emanating from the East Building of the National Gallery. That would be the art of Dan Flavin, the American avatar of the fluorescent tube.
The light comes from "Untitled (To You, Heiner, With Admiration and Affection)," a low, fencelike barrier, 110 feet long, spanning one side of the atrium's broad mezzanine. Typically about as suited to exhibiting art as an airport terminal, the space has now been gaudily transfigured by this catchy introduction to Flavin's traveling retrospective -- the first retrospective of his art, believe it or not, since the late 1960's. Lacking some of the spectacular site-specific, architectural works he did later in his career, the show, which opens on Sunday, is nevertheless a qualified beauty, and the latest sign of Minimalism's reconsideration.
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