Keith Sonnier
Encyclopedia
Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance
, video and light artist
. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique. Sonnier was a part of the Process Art
Movement.
and fluorescent
lights
Reflective materials
Aluminum & copper
Glass & wires
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, video and light artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique. Sonnier was a part of the Process Art
Process art
Process art is an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment and world view where the end product of art and craft, the objet d’art, is not the principal focus. The 'process' in process art refers to the process of the formation of art: the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, and...
Movement.
Materials and Techniques
NeonNeon lighting
Neon lighting is created by brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Georges Claude, a French engineer and inventor, presented neon tube lighting in essentially its modern form at the Paris Motor Show from December 3–18, 1910...
and fluorescent
Fluorescent lamp
A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful...
lights
Reflective materials
Aluminum & copper
Glass & wires