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GUGGENHEIM APPLICATION

I regard Dan Flavin as one of the most important artists currently working in America, and feel that any assistance he can be given toward the realization of the project described will be of enormous value to American art.

For almost a decade now, Flavin has been working in a virtually unsaleable medium, so that his living, in spite of unanimous critical praise, remains highly precarious -- that he is unable to execute the more costly projects of which he conceives goes without saying.

The following is a short description of Flavin's importance as I see it, which will be published in LOOK magazine within the next month or so. It adequately conveys my sense of the crucial position Flavin now occupies:

Dan Flavin is one of the few artists who have approached the austerity and seriousness of high art outside the graditional means of paint and canvas. His work with fluorescent light lacks the pyrotechnical scale and theatrical side-show effects which Clement Greenberg has described as "novelty art." Working virtually without influence for half a decade, it is only now that several younger artists who seem to have taken their sue from him seem to be emerging, especially on the West Coast.

My recommendation favoring Mr. Flavin's application is without qualification.

11/23/67

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EDITOR, ARTFORUM MAGAZINE
667 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y.