I happened to talk to one of the MOCA curators who put together Dan Flavin's recent retrospective at MOCA in LA. The work, as described in TFA, is (famously) m

I happened to talk to one of the MOCA curators who put together Dan Flavin's recent retrospective at MOCA in LA. The work, as described in TFA, is (famously) made of fluorescent tubes in very simple arrangements (e.g., https://www.moca.org/collection/work/monument-for-v-tatlin https://www.moca.org/collection/work/monument-for-v-tatlin). Because of the simplicity, small color changes are noticeable, and really affect your perception of the piece. The conservation crew had to drive out to a warehouse in Arizona which still had leftovers of the same tubes used in the original piece. In a hypothetical future retrospective, she had no idea where the tubes were going to come from. They bought a bunch. ;-) Another example is Nam June Paik's early installations with massed televisions. They are CRT televisions - he liked that form and it is integral to the way his pieces look -- and they tend to break down over time. Here's a nice piece on conserving an intricate piece of his: https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/04/15/conserving-a-nam-june-paik-altered-piano/ https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/04/15/conservin...