Dan Flavin's masterful use of flourescent lighting to set atmosphere is acknowledged by anyone lucky enough to experience his moody works in person.  The lighting and their mesmerizing colors bring out all sorts of reactions covering the entire gamut of the emotional spectrum.  This intense response wasn't devised instantly from Flavin, but instead was crafted through careful design and refinement throughout his career, with much of the design planning done directly on paper.

A new exhibition at New York's Morgan Library & Museum focuses on Flavin's various drawings.  This includes the planning sketches of his famous flourescent light installations, much of which was drawn quickly on notebooks carried with him.  He eventually created finished drawings to document his installations, often delegating the drawing process to his assistants to keep the final record of the pieces.  The retrospective also covers the rest of his oeuvre outside of his lighting works, including portraits of his friends, personal icons, and other contemporaries, as well as landscape and sailing sketches. In addition to the drawings, a couple of his insanely beautiful flourescent light installations will also be on view.

Dan Flavin: Drawings will be on view February 17, 2012 - July 1, 2012 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.