![Broadway and Times Square by night](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Broadway_and_Times_Square_by_night.jpg)
Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain
rarefied
Rarefaction is the reduction of an item's density, the opposite of compression. Like compression, which can travel in waves (sound waves, for instance), rarefaction waves also exist in nature. A common rarefaction wave is the area of low relativ ...
neon
Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...
or other gases. Neon lights are a type of
cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal
electrode
An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials de ...
at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure. A high potential of several thousand
volt
The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).
Defi ...
s applied to the electrodes
ionizes
Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule i ...
the gas in the tube, causing it to emit colored light. The color of the light depends on the gas in the tube. Neon lights were named for
neon
Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...
, a
noble gas which gives off a popular orange light, but other gases and chemicals are used to produce other colors, such as
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
(red),
helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
(yellow),
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
(white), and
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
(blue). Neon tubes can be fabricated in curving artistic shapes, to form letters or pictures. They are mainly used to make dramatic, multicolored glowing
signage for advertising, called
neon signs, which were popular from the 1920s to 1960s and again in the 1980s.
The term can also refer to the miniature
neon glow lamp, developed in 1917, about seven years after neon tube lighting.
While neon tube lights are typically meters long, the neon lamps can be less than one centimeter in length and glow much more dimly than the tube lights. They are still in use as small indicator lights. Through the 1970s, neon glow lamps were widely used for numerical displays in electronics, for small decorative lamps, and as signal processing devices in circuitry. While these lamps are now antiques, the technology of the neon glow lamp developed into contemporary
plasma display
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be release ...
s and
televisions.
Neon was discovered in 1898 by the British scientists
William Ramsay and
Morris W. Travers
Morris William Travers, FRS (24 January 1872 – 25 August 1961) was an English chemist who worked with Sir William Ramsay in the discovery of xenon, neon and krypton. His work on several of the rare gases earned him the name ''Rare gas T ...
. After obtaining pure neon from the atmosphere, they explored its properties using an
"electrical gas-discharge" tube that was similar to the tubes used for neon signs today.
Georges Claude
Georges Claude (24 September 187023 May 1960) was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on genera ...
, a French engineer and inventor, presented neon tube lighting in essentially its modern form at the
Paris Motor Show, December 3–18, 1910.
[The dates of the 1910 Paris Motor Show are incorporated into this poster for the show.][ Claude lit the peristyle of the '']Grand Palais
The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais (English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arro ...
'' in Paris with neon tubes; this webpage includes a contemporary photograph that gives an impression of the effect. The webpage is part of an extensive selection of images of neon lighting; see Claude, sometimes called "the
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
of France",
had a near monopoly on the new technology, which became very popular for signage and displays in the period 1920-1940. Neon lighting was an important cultural phenomenon in the United States in that era;
[ As explained in this article, Claude did not discover neon.] by 1940, the downtowns of nearly every city in the US were bright with neon signage, and
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in New York City was known worldwide for its neon extravagances. There were 2,000 shops nationwide designing and fabricating neon signs.
The popularity, intricacy, and scale of neon signage for advertising declined in the U.S. following the Second World War (1939–1945), but development continued vigorously in Japan, Iran, and some other countries.
In recent decades architects and artists, in addition to sign designers, have again adopted neon tube lighting as a component in their works.
Neon lighting is closely related to
fluorescent lighting, which developed about 25 years after neon tube lighting.
In fluorescent lights, the light emitted by rarefied gases within a tube is used exclusively to excite fluorescent materials that coat the tube, which then shine with their own colors that become the tube's visible, usually white, glow. Fluorescent coatings and glasses are also an option for neon tube lighting, but are usually selected to obtain bright colors.
History and science
Neon
Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...
is a
noble gas chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...
and an
inert gas
An inert gas is a gas that does not readily undergo chemical reactions with other chemical substances and therefore does not readily form chemical compounds. The noble gases often do not react with many substances and were historically referred to ...
that is a minor component of the Earth's atmosphere. It was discovered in 1898 by the British scientists
William Ramsay and
Morris W. Travers
Morris William Travers, FRS (24 January 1872 – 25 August 1961) was an English chemist who worked with Sir William Ramsay in the discovery of xenon, neon and krypton. His work on several of the rare gases earned him the name ''Rare gas T ...
. When Ramsay and Travers had succeeded in obtaining pure neon from the atmosphere, they explored its properties using an
"electrical gas-discharge" tube that was similar to the tubes used today for neon signs. Travers later wrote, "the blaze of crimson light from the tube told its own story and was a sight to dwell upon and never forget." The procedure of examining the colors of the light emitted from gas-discharge (or "Geissler" tubes) was well known at the time, since the colors of light (the "spectral lines") emitted by a gas discharge tube are, essentially, fingerprints that identify the gases inside.
Immediately following neon's discovery, neon tubes were used as scientific instruments and novelties. However, the scarcity of purified neon gas precluded its prompt application for electrical gas-discharge lighting along the lines of
Moore tube
Daniel McFarlan Moore (February 27, 1869 – June 15, 1936) was a U.S. electrical engineer and inventor. He developed a novel light source, the "Moore lamp", and a business that produced them in the early 1900s. The Moore lamp was the first co ...
s, which used more common
nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
or
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
as the working gas, and enjoyed some commercial success in the US in the early 1900s.
After 1902,
Georges Claude
Georges Claude (24 September 187023 May 1960) was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on genera ...
's company in France,
Air Liquide
Air Liquide S.A. (; ; literally "liquid air"), is a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, after Linde it is ...
, began producing industrial quantities of neon as a byproduct of the air liquefaction business. From December 3 to 18, 1910, Claude demonstrated two large ( long), bright red neon tubes at the
Paris Motor Show.
![Modern vegas vic souvenirs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Modern_vegas_vic_souvenirs.JPG)
These neon tubes were essentially in their contemporary form.
The outer diameters for the glass tubing used in neon lighting ranges from 9 to 25 mm; with standard electrical equipment, the tubes can be as long as . The pressure of the gas inside ranges from 3 to 20
Torr
The torr (symbol: Torr) is a unit of pressure based on an absolute scale, defined as exactly of a standard atmosphere (). Thus one torr is exactly (≈ ).
Historically, one torr was intended to be the same as one "millimeter of mercury ...
(0.4–3 kPa), which corresponds to a partial vacuum in the tubing. Claude had also solved two technical problems that substantially shortened the working life of neon and some other gas discharge tubes,
and effectively gave birth to a neon lighting industry. In 1915, a US patent was issued to Claude covering the design of the electrodes for gas-discharge lighting; this patent became the basis for the monopoly held in the US by his company, Claude Neon Lights, for neon signs through the early 1930s.
Claude's patents envisioned the use of gases such as
argon
Argon is a chemical element with the symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...
and
mercury vapor
A mercury-vapor lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses an electric arc through vaporized mercury to produce light. The arc discharge is generally confined to a small fused quartz arc tube mounted within a larger soda lime or borosilicate glas ...
to create different colors beyond those produced by neon. For instance, mixing metallic mercury with neon gas creates blue. Green can then be achieved using uranium (yellow) glass. White and gold can also be created by adding argon and
helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
. In the 1920s, fluorescent glasses and coatings were developed to further expand the range of colors and effects for tubes with argon gas or argon-neon mixtures; generally, the fluorescent coatings are used with an argon/mercury-vapor mixture, which emits
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
light that activates the fluorescent coatings.
By the 1930s, the colors from combinations of neon tube lights had become satisfactory for some general interior lighting applications, and achieved some success in Europe, but not in the US.
Since the 1950s, the development of phosphors for color televisions has created nearly 100 new colors for neon tube lighting.
Around 1917,
Daniel McFarlan Moore, then working at the
General Electric Company
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...
, developed the miniature
neon lamp. The glow lamp has a very different design than the much larger neon tubes used for signage; the difference was sufficient that a separate US patent was issued for the lamp in 1919. A Smithsonian Institution website notes, "These small, low power devices use a physical principle called 'coronal discharge'." Moore mounted two electrodes close together in a bulb and added neon or argon gas. The electrodes would glow brightly in red or blue, depending on the gas, and the lamps lasted for years. Since the electrodes could take almost any shape imaginable, a popular application has been fanciful decorative lamps. Glow lamps found practical use as electronic components, and as indicators in instrument panels and in many home appliances until the acceptance of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) starting in the 1970s."
Although some neon lamps themselves are now antiques, and their use in electronics has declined markedly, the technology has continued to develop in artistic and entertainment contexts.
Neon lighting technology has been reshaped from long tubes into thin flat panels used for
plasma display
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be release ...
s and plasma television sets.
Neon tube lighting and signs
![Payday loan shop window](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Payday_loan_shop_window.jpg)
When Georges Claude demonstrated an impressive, practical form of neon tube lighting in 1910, he apparently envisioned that it would be used as a form of lighting, which had been the application of the earlier Moore tubes that were based on nitrogen and carbon dioxide discharges. Claude's 1910 demonstration of neon lighting at the ''
Grand Palais
The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais (English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arro ...
'' (Grand Palace) in Paris lit a
peristyle of this large exhibition space.
Claude's associate, Jacques Fonseque, realized the possibilities for a business based on signage and advertising. By 1913 a large sign for the vermouth
Cinzano
Cinzano () is an Italian brand of vermouth, a brand owned since 1999 by Gruppo Campari.
History
Cinzano vermouths date back to 1757 and the Turin herbal shop of two brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano, who created a new "vermo ...
illuminated the night sky in Paris, and by 1919 the entrance to the
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...
was adorned with neon tube lighting.
Neon signage was received with particular enthusiasm in the United States. In 1923,
Earle C. Anthony
Earle C. Anthony (December 18, 1880—August 6, 1961) was an American businessman and philanthropist based in Los Angeles, California. He worked in broadcasting and automobiles and was also a songwriter, journalist and playwright.
Early life
...
purchased two neon signs from Claude for his
Packard
Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958.
One of the "Thr ...
car dealership in Los Angeles, California; these literally stopped traffic.
Claude's US patents had secured him a monopoly on neon signage, and following Anthony's success with neon signs, many companies arranged franchises with Claude to manufacture neon signs. In many cases companies were given exclusive licenses for the production of neon signs in a given geographical area; by 1931, the value of the neon sign business was $16.9 million, of which a significant percentage was paid to Claude Neon Lights, Inc. by the franchising arrangements. Claude's principal patent expired in 1932, which led to a great expansion in the production of neon signage. The industry's sales in 1939 were about $22.0 million; the expansion in volume from 1931 to 1939 was much larger than the ratio of sales in the two years suggests.
Rudi Stern
Rudolph George Stern (November 30, 1936 – August 15, 2006) was an American multimedia artist most widely known for his work in neon. In his later years, he concentrated on making documentary films.
Biography
Stern was born in New Haven, Con ...
has written, "The 1930s were years of great creativity for neon, a period when many design and animation techniques were developed. ... Men like O. J. Gude and, in particular,
Douglas Leigh
Douglas Leigh (May 24, 1907 – December 14, 1999) was an American advertising executive and lighting designer, and a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising. He is famous for making New York City's Times Square the site of some of the worl ...
took neon advertising further than Georges Claude and his associates had ever envisioned. Leigh, who conceived and created the archetypal Times Square spectacular, experimented with displays that incorporated smells, fog, and sounds as part of their total effect. ... Much of the visual excitement of Times Square in the thirties was a result of Leigh's genius as a kinetic and luminal artist."
Major cities throughout the United States and in several other countries also had elaborate displays of neon signs. Events such as the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition (1933–34), the Paris World's Fair (1937) and New York World's Fair (1939) were remarkable for their extensive use of neon tubes as architectural features. Stern has argued that the creation of "glorious" neon displays for movie theaters led to an association of the two, "One's joy in going to the movies became inseparably associated with neon."
![London England Victor Grigas 2011-37](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/London_England_Victor_Grigas_2011-37.jpg)
The Second World War (1939–1945) arrested new sign installations around most of the world. Following the war, the industry resumed. Marcus Thielen writes of this era, "...after World War II, government programs were established to help re-educate soldiers. The Egani Institute (New York City) was one of few schools in the country that taught neon-trade secrets. The American streamlined design from the 1950s would be unimaginable without the use of neon."
The development of
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
as a resort city is inextricably linked with neon signage;
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
wrote in 1965, "Las Vegas is the only city in the world whose skyline is made neither of buildings, like New York, nor of trees, like
Wilbraham, Massachusetts, but signs. One can look at Las Vegas from a mile away on route 91 and see no buildings, no trees, only signs. But such signs! They tower. They revolve, they oscillate, they soar in shapes before which the existing vocabulary of art history is helpless."
Overall, however, neon displays became less fashionable, and some cities discouraged their construction with ordinances.
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.
Algren articulated ...
titled his 1947 collection of short stories ''
The Neon Wilderness
''The Neon Wilderness'' (1947) is the first short-story collection by American writer Nelson Algren. Two of its stories had received an O. Henry Award. Algren received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the same year.
Overvi ...
'' (as a synonym of "urban jungle" for
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
).
Margalit Fox
Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...
has written, "... after World War II, as neon signs were replaced increasingly by fluorescent-lighted plastic, the art of bending colored tubes into sinuous, gas-filled forms began to wane."
A dark age persisted at least through the 1970s, when artists adopted neon with enthusiasm; in 1979 Rudi Stern published his manifesto, ''Let There Be Neon''. Marcus Thielen wrote in 2005, on the 90th anniversary of the US patent issued to Georges Claude, "The demand for the use of neon and cold cathode in architectural applications is growing, and the introduction of new techniques like
fiber optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
and
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
—into the sign market have strengthened, rather than replaced, neon technology. The evolution of the 'waste' product neon tube remains incomplete 90 years after the patent was filed."
Neon glow lamps and plasma displays
![Nixie2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Nixie2.gif)
In neon glow lamps, the luminous region of the gas is a thin,
"negative glow" region immediately adjacent to a negatively charged electrode (or "cathode"); the positively charged electrode ("anode") is quite close to the cathode. These features distinguish glow lamps from the much longer and brighter "positive column" luminous regions in neon tube lighting.
The energy dissipation in the lamps when they are glowing is very low (about 0.1 W),
hence the distinguishing term cold-cathode lighting.
Some of the applications of neon lamps include:
*Pilot lamps that indicate the presence of electrical power in an appliance or instrument (e.g. an electric coffee pot or power supply).
*Decorative (or "figural") lamps in which the cathode is shaped as a flower, animal, etc.. The figures inside these lamps were typically painted with phosphorescent paints to achieve a variety of colors.
*Active electronic circuits such as electronic oscillators, timers, memory elements, etc..
*Intricate electronic displays such as the
Nixie tube (see photograph).
The small size of the negative glow region of a neon lamp, and the flexible electronic properties that were exploited in electronic circuits, led to the adoption of this technology for the earliest
plasma panel displays. The first monochrome dot-matrix plasma panel displays were developed in 1964 at the University of Illinois for the
PLATO educational computing system. They had the characteristic color of the neon lamp; their inventors,
Donald L. Bitzer, H. Gene Slottow, and Robert H. Wilson, had achieved a working computer display that remembered its own state, and did not require constant refreshing from the central computer system. The relationship between these early monochrome displays and contemporary, color plasma displays and televisions was described by Larry F. Weber in 2006, "All plasma TVs on the market today have the same features that were demonstrated in the first plasma display which was a device with only a single cell. These features include alternating sustain voltage, dielectric layer, wall charge, and a neon-based gas mixture."
As in colored neon lamps, plasma displays use a gas mixture that emits ultraviolet light. Each pixel has a phosphor that emits one of the display's base colors.
Neon lighting and artists in light
The mid to late 1980s was a period of resurgence in neon production. Sign companies developed a new type of signage called
channel lettering, in which individual letters were fashioned from sheet metal.
While the market for neon lighting in outdoor advertising signage has declined since the mid twentieth century, in recent decades neon lighting has been used consciously in art, both in individual objects and integrated into architecture.
Frank Popper traces the use of neon lighting as the principal element in artworks to
Gyula Košice's late 1940s work in Argentina. Among the later artists whom Popper notes in a brief history of neon lighting in art are
Stephen Antonakos
Stephen Antonakos ( el, Στυλιανός Αντωνάκος; November 1, 1926 in Agios Nikolaos, Laconia, Greece – August 17, 2013 in New York City) was a Greek born American sculptor most well known for his abstract sculptures often incorporat ...
, the conceptual artists
Billy Apple,
Joseph Kosuth,
Bruce Nauman,
Martial Raysse
Martial Raysse (born 12 February 1936 in Golfe-Juan) is a French artist and actor. He lives in Issigeac, France. He holds the record for the most expensive work sold by a living French artist.
Biography
Raysse was born in a ceramicist family in ...
,
Chryssa,
Piotr Kowalski
Piotr Kowalski (2 March 1927 – 7 January 2004) was a Polish artist, sculptor, and architect. Kowalski worked in non-traditional materials including electronic and mechanical devices, neon art, large earth works, explosions and other natural phe ...
,
Maurizio Nannucci and
François Morellet
François Morellet (30 April 1926 – 10 May 2016) was a French contemporary abstract painter, sculptor, and light artist. His early work prefigured minimal art and conceptual art and he played a prominent role in the development of geometrical a ...
in addition to
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He is mostly known as the founder of Spatialism.
Early life
Born in Rosario, to Italian immigrant parents, he was t ...
or
Mario Merz
Mario Merz (1 January 1925 – 9 November 2003) was an Italian artist, and husband of Marisa Merz.
Life
Born in Milan, Merz started drawing during World War II, when he was imprisoned for his activities with the ''Giustizia e Libertà'' antifa ...
.
Several museums in the United States are now devoted to neon lighting and art, including the
Museum of Neon Art
The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) is an institution that exists to encourage learning and curiosity through the preservation, collection, and interpretation of neon art. The first museum devoted to art that incorporates neon lighting, it exclusively ex ...
(founded by neon artist
Lili Lakich
Liliana Diane Lakich (born June 4, 1944) is an American artist, best known for her work in neon lighting, neon sculpture. As a child, she had been fascinated by neon advertising, and she built her career around illuminated art, with its special e ...
, Los Angeles, 1981), the
Neon Museum (Las Vegas, founded 1996), the
American Sign Museum
The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, preserves, archives, and displays a collection of Signage, signs. The museum also displays the equipment utilized in the design and manufacture of signs. Tod Swormstedt began working on the museum in 19 ...
(Cincinnati, founded 1999). These museums restore and display historical signage that was originally designed as advertising, in addition to presenting exhibits of neon art. Several books of photographs have also been published to draw attention to neon lighting as art.
[ A collection of photographs of neon signs from cities around the world, most unannotated.] In 1994, Christian Schiess has published an anthology of photographs and interviews devoted to fifteen "light artists".
[ Schiess' anthology includes Stephen Antonakos, ]Valerij Bugrov
Valerij is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Valerij Popov, Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1999. Popov won the championship
* Valerij Zhuravliov, Soviet/Latvian chess master
* Valerij V ...
, Chris Freeman Chris Freeman may refer to:
Musicians
* Chris Freeman (Australian musician) (c. 1950 – 1992), Australian classical and flamenco multi-instrumentalist
* Chris Freeman (musician) (born 1961), American bassist, founding member of Pansy Division
* Ch ...
, Peter Freeman, Michael Hayden, Craig Kraft, Dante Leonelli, Cork Marcheschi, Bill Parker, Alejandro & Moira Siña (Sinha), Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier (July 31, 1941 – July 18, 2020) was a postminimalist sculptor, performance artist, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s. With his use of neon in combination with epheme ...
, and Willem Volkersz
Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gui ...
.
List of neon light artists
*
Billy Apple(1935) New Zealand / USA
*
Frida Blumenberg (1935) South Africa
*
Chryssa (1962) Greek-American
*
Michael Flechtner (1951) US
*
Michael Hayden (1943) Canada
*
Joseph Kosuth (1965) US
*
Piotr Kowalski
Piotr Kowalski (2 March 1927 – 7 January 2004) was a Polish artist, sculptor, and architect. Kowalski worked in non-traditional materials including electronic and mechanical devices, neon art, large earth works, explosions and other natural phe ...
(1927) Poland, France
*
Brigitte Kowanz
Brigitte Kowanz (13 April 1957 – 28 January 2022) was an Austrian artist. Kowanz studied from 1975 to 1980 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was Professor of Transmedial Art there from 1997.
Works
Since the 1980s, Brigitte Kowanz ...
(1957) Austria
*
Lili Lakich
Liliana Diane Lakich (born June 4, 1944) is an American artist, best known for her work in neon lighting, neon sculpture. As a child, she had been fascinated by neon advertising, and she built her career around illuminated art, with its special e ...
(1944) US
*
Mario Merz
Mario Merz (1 January 1925 – 9 November 2003) was an Italian artist, and husband of Marisa Merz.
Life
Born in Milan, Merz started drawing during World War II, when he was imprisoned for his activities with the ''Giustizia e Libertà'' antifa ...
(1925) Italy
*
Victor Millonzi Victor Millonzi (December 17, 1915 – 1997) was an American painter and sculptor1- Who's Who in American Art (ED Dorothy B. Gilbert, R.R. Bowker Co., New York)
best known for his work in neon sculpture. His work can be found in the Smithsonian ...
(1915) US
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Maurizio Nannucci (1939) Italy
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Bruce Nauman (1941) US
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Carla O'Brien Australia LED neon flex
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Bill Parker (1950) US - plasma lamp
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Stepan Ryabchenko (1987) Ukraine
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Lisa Schulte
Lisa Schulte (born 1956) is an American artist, also known as "The Neon Queen", who is best known for her work in expressive neon sculpture. Schulte started bending neon in the early 1980s, creating custom neon signs and neon prop rentals to the ...
(1956) US
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Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier (July 31, 1941 – July 18, 2020) was a postminimalist sculptor, performance artist, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s. With his use of neon in combination with epheme ...
(1941) US
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Rudi Stern
Rudolph George Stern (November 30, 1936 – August 15, 2006) was an American multimedia artist most widely known for his work in neon. In his later years, he concentrated on making documentary films.
Biography
Stern was born in New Haven, Con ...
(1936) US
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Tim White-Sobieski
Tim White-Sobieski is a video and installation artist based in New York and Berlin. He was educated as an architect and dedicated himself to visual art and filmmaking, exploring the fields of painting, sculpture, photography, video, video installa ...
(1961) Poland
See also
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Crackle tube
A crackle tube is a type of plasma lamp that is used most commonly in museums, night clubs, movie sets, and other applications where its appearance may be appealing for entertainment. Such a device consists of a double walled glass tube with a ...
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Plasma globe
References
Further reading
*Len Davidson operated a neon museum in Philadelphia until 2006; the museum exhibited pieces from his large private collection. See
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