Neon Art-art objects with euphoric luminosity

Neon immediately conjures up pictures of dodgy bars, night clubs and advertising logans in front of our spiritual eye. Luminaires have been the last scream in recent decades and have largely become both culture and art .

The euphoric light from Neon has captivated the art world since the 1930s. Media artists of the early 20th century already used shining tubes for their technological innovations and contemporary artists for their bold lettering.

Also in the art world of the 21st century, numerous contemporary artists use this lighting technique abstract neon objects , neon paintings, light painting and neon sculptures .

Andy Warhol once described the noble gas as "one of the big modern things" . Since then, Neon has still attracted great attention over 100 years after his discovery.

The noble gas neon

While many of these works of art have attracted considerable attention, the material composition of neon in science remains largely opaque.

The ambiguity around Neon begins at the semantic level: Most neon signs do not contain any neongas. Every noble gas creates a unique color when it is locked in glass and provided with electricity: neon is orange-red, helium is peach colors, argon is lavender colors, cryptone is white-gray and xenon is gray-blue.

Neon , the classic color associated "red light districts" the first noble gas that was used in commercial signage in 1910 Its natural color shines five times brighter than an incandescent lamp in daylight and consumes less watts, which made it an immediate success the advertising.

As neon technology progresses, Argon's popularity due to the adaptability of the gas. While ARGON's tender lilac tone alone cannot effectively shed light on a sign in daylight, the gas lights up in combination with a drop of liquid mercury in an intense electrical light blue.

The neutral color of this icy blue enables Argongas to create a wide range of colors in combination with various phosphorus -coated or colored glass tubes.

What is neon art / neon art?

Neon art - or neon art - is a relatively new medium that uses neon light to create visually stimulating art forms that often contain movement and interactivity. As a genre, the area of ​​neon art is still in the genesis, with new techniques and technologies to create new opportunities every year.

Neon is one of the noble gases and has a number of properties in common with the other gases: Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Radon. Of these, only neon and argon are usually used in neon art. When a noble gas is shot at by leading an electrical current through it, its atoms are removed from their orbit. When the atoms absorb the electrons, the resulting energy is emitted as light.

When creating neon art, most artists bend the glass freehand, while some rely on the type of templates that are usually used in the production of neon signs. Glass is bent by fixing it over a high -temperature flame and rolling back and forth while moving into the desired shape.

Neon art takes two main forms . In the first case, neon tubes are the exclusive media of the works of art. Often these pieces are similar to traditional fluorescent signs, which have been added to a subtle message as an artistic form of expression.

In other cases, the work can freely shaped , partly without any narrative structure, and is expressed by the gentle curves and lively colors for which neon light is suitable.

Another style of neon art uses neon light in combination with traditional media or with objects from everyday life. This style of neon art tends to a political statement than art objects that focuses exclusively on the shape and color of the neon. Neon Art has produced some significant works of art that have come across great praise.

The history of origin and evolution of neon art

Neon art began in the early 20th century after the noble gas neon in 1898 was discovered Sir William Ramsay By sealing the neon in a glass tube, the light effect was so light that it quickly became popular as an advertising technology and as a medium to revitalize the glamor scene.

Neon first appeared in Paris in 1910 , and before the First World War there were more than 160 neon signs throughout France. Together with neon, Argon and sodium were also shone due to the introduction of an electrical current. It was the French physicist and chemist Georges Claude who was the first to stabilize, patent the neon process and made it known worldwide.

The first large -scale use of neon in Great Britain took place in a seaside resort in the northwest, which is known as a black pool and has been used for a long time to boost tourism.

In the 1930s , arcades and dance restaurants Neon introduced their shop fronts; The local spectacle became known as an illumination . Now the city is enjoying a nightly collision between its bright promenade and the dark roughness of the Irish lake.

In 1936 Zdeněk Pešánek integrated neon tubes into his series of glass sculptures of male and female torsi and thus introduced them to the visual art. The neon tubes emphasized the external form of contoured human body made of glass and at the same time highlighted the interior of the sculpture .

In the course of the Second World War, the Nazis made a broader use of neon in European art impossible. Working with neon tubes as material only appeared in 1946: Gyula Kosice's "Estructura Lumínica Madí 6" was a geometric structure mounted on wood that shimmered in blue light and was exhibited in Buenos Aires. Kosice was a co -founder of the artist group Madí .

Lucio Fontana , also in Buenos Aires, founded Academia Altamira and published the "Manifesto Blanco" , in which he explained his theory of "Spacialismo" . In the manifesto, in addition to a cancellation of traditional materials, he called for a removal from the smooth surface and flatness of the canvas.

The call to devote themselves spatially followed not only his well -known cuts, but also his neon drawings in the room. In 1951 he drew on the 9th Triennale in Milan "Struttura al Neon Per La Ix Triennale di Milano" , a structure made of twisted lines from neon tubes. It was the first neon thesis to do without further materials.

Neon sixties - the wild sixties

Even if the first use of neon tubes in a clearly artistic context goes back to the 1930s, today in particular the 1960s be described as formative for the development of the material in the visual art. From today's perspective, it would have been highly surprising if the desire for change, which resulted in the use of various new materials, would not have brought the neon tube back to art.

The French artist Martial Raysse was one of the first artists during this time to work with neon in the artistic sense and pop art portraits with neo -Non accents. This was one of the first cases to bring neon to the cultural zeitgeist of the 1960s.

From the mid -1960s, artists such as François Morellet , Keith Sonnier, Mario Merz, Maurizio Nannucci, Bruce Nauman and Joseph Kosuth discovered the neon tube for themselves. To date, they are the most famous protagonists of art with neon tubes.

In the 1960s and 1970s, neon signs were increasingly associated New York Times Square Or can you Las Vegas without a neon lettering? Also today, lettering and signs from neon-such as the Neon-Reklame from Neoneverglow -are still an effective medium in the tool box of the advertising industry.

While it had lost its original charm of an artistic neon light, this use of Neon inspired advanced artists such as the Americans Joseph Kosuth and Dan Flavin . There was a fundamental rethink when visionary artists began to experiment with neon light.

These groundbreaking artists converted a commercial mechanism of lower culture, which is connected to the urban kitsch of commercial signage, into a powerful medium of fine arts. Her sculptural work researched the intersection between light, color and space; as well as pop culture pictures, consumerism and various topics associated with the contemporary living environment.

Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth created a large number of language-based neon works of art in the 1960s, which offered a visual representation of some of his key ideas.

Joseph Kosuth (born 1945), one of the pioneers of conceptualism, used neon art to explore the top of this new artistic movement. With intellectual works like Four Colors Four Words, he clearly and literally formulated what the audience saw. Kosuth showed his audience two simultaneous, but different realities of color and language, no more real than the other.

This work, which was created in 1966 during his studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, examined how literal can be integrated into the artistic process and artistic production, and contributed to the birth of the conceptual movement. Without emotions and with emphasis on art as an idea and not as an object, Kosuth's neon workshops paved the way to research the relationship between art, color and language.

His ingenious visual summaries of complex topics of semiotics and semantics should be among the determining works of this era.

Dan flavin

Dan Flavin was known for his influential work with fluorescent light in the 1960s.

Dan Flavins (1933–1996) The first works were abstract expressionist drawings and paintings , which, however, quickly developed into sculptural pieces, which contained found everyday objects. When he worked as a postal employee in the Guggenheim Museum in 1961, he made friends with the artists Sol Lewitt and Robert Ryman , who promoted his idea to use electric light in his sculptures.

This original concept was realized and became Flavin's sculptural "icons" series , which used fluorescent tubes for the first time, which should become a lifelong artistic career of experimentation with light, space and color. His oeuvre was defined by these iconic minimalist lighting work, which were created with factory -made fluorescent tubes in different colors.

Through his work with neon, he was able to define the noble gas as a valid medium for art practice, and in the course of his career he developed more ambitious, larger, local installations. Flavin's groundbreaking use of fluorescent light made him the father of neon art , as we understand it today, and inspired the work of influential artists such as Robert Irwin and James Turrell .

Chryssa

Chryssa (1933-2014) was one of the first artists to convert neon from advertising into art. It used neon art as an artistic interface between lighting, text and color. Growing up in the middle of the National Socialist occupation of Greece, Chryssa has led the scribbling texts of the resistance movement underground as an early influence on her interest in fragmentary.

Fascinated by literary symbols and texts, Chrysssa's groundbreaking work Times Square Sky a mess of italics that were scribbled and swirl in light blue neon. This topic continued in her Gates to Times Square , a massive square structure of steel and neon, which invited her audience to look around via a great “A”.

The Mona in La

In 1981 Museum of Neon Art (Mona) was the first museum in the world that specialized in works of neon art. Mona was founded in 1981 by the artists Lili Lakich and Richard Jenkins in downtown Los Angeles as a non -profit art museum. Their intention was to raise awareness of the preservation of historical neon signs and to present this electrifying contemporary art form to the public.

The operators see Neon as a link between scientific principles and artistic expression. Neonkunst integrates electrical engineering, creative design and basic concepts of physics and chemistry.

In its more than 30 years of history, the Mona has sustainably promoted awareness of historical illuminated signs Lumens project with the city of La and its popular bus tour, the Neon Cruise ™ Mona has witnessed the rise and case of neon, which is used by the sign industry, and the current resuming of neon, which is now used by creative artists and commercial designers.

To date, they have shown the work of more than four hundred artists and received a lot of international praise.

Mona not only runs a museum, but also offers courses on the introduction of neon formation and technology, which are taught by the museum's employees and local artists. The Museum also collects kinetic art , restores the objects and exhibits them. The history and technology of neon signage and art are also presented.

By the way, neon signs for your own home can be found on neoneverglow.de , should not be granted to you in the near future.

Neon Art in the modern art landscape

The artists of the past decades have paved the way to appear again as a cool, cultural medium in our time. This movement was driven Young British artists A group of British artists who started exhibitions at the end of the 1980s.

Tracey emin

This included the extremely successful Tracey Emin , which is known for her autobiographical and denominational works of art. Her most popular pieces include neon signs, which are made in their own handwriting, often with love and emotional quotes.

"I don't think I'm visually the best artist in the world, right? I have to be honest. But when it comes to words, I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in terms of art - and it is my words that actually make my art unique."

Tracey Emin (born 1963) worked in many different media; Drawing, painting, filming, photography and of course neon art. Her neon text series builds on the postmodern aesthetics of artists such as Joseph Kosuth, and in her characteristic italics she scribbles very personal statements that are transferred "every man/woman"

In mantraesk form, eminine works such as Fabulous to Feel Beautiful Again or Kiss Me, Kover My body in Love shamelessly the kitsch and sentimentalities - fearless and boldly communicate our very human wishes, to be loved and cared for. Your neon art enables you to enter your world of raw emotions and offers a space for the liberation and recognition of the intensity of human experience.

In addition to Tracey Emin, another successful artist stood out to use Neon to illuminate her own quotes: Sara Pope . Both are represented by the London Gallery Imitations Modern .

Mark Sloper

Mark Sloper also produces his neon works of art himself by finishing glass at a temperature of 500 ° C and compressing neongas in the tubes. He then uses electrical transformers to aluminate the neon, which creates its characteristic glow.

Sloper started his professional career as a cameraman and cameraman for bands such as The Police and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He later worked for the BBC. Mark Sloperhat many successful documentary films about legendary artists from the music scene, including the Beatles, David Bowie and the sex pistols.

By immersing it into this world, he met many artists, including the "King of Neon" , who inspired him to create Illuminati Neon His original neon works of art have attracted the attention of the global art world and many prominent.

Even the queen was involved in Illuminati Neon works of art. The collectors included Sir Elton John, Sting and Boy George.

Cerith Wyn Evans also known for his art installations with chandeliers with neon lights, some of whom were previously exhibited in the Britain in London.

In Japan and Hong Kong , Neon Art is still very important. Likewise in the cyberpunk scene.

Used sources:

• Official homepage of the Mona - neonmona.org
• Artland magazine-magazine.artland.com/neon-art-ten-artists-who-defined-the-medium

• Neon A Light History Book , Authors: Dydia Delyser and Paul Greenstein, publisher: Giant Orange Press