Keith Sonnier

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Neon Wrapping Incandescent I, 1970

Neon and incandescent bulbs
96.06 x 57.87 x 9.06 in ( 244 x 147 x 23 cm ), Unique

Keith Sonnier<br/><em>Proteus</em>, 1978/2003

Proteus, 1978/2003

Neon, argon and electrical transmitter
78.74 x 36.61 x 7.09 in ( 200 x 93 x 18 cm ), Unique

Keith Sonnier<br/><em>Flocked file</em>, 1968

Flocked file, 1968

Aluminum, flock, wood
102.36 x 9.84 in ( 260 x 25 cm ), Unique

Keith Sonnier<br/><em>Elliptical Shield Extended arm</em>, 2005

Elliptical Shield Extended arm, 2005

Metal, neon
27.95 x 12.99 x 9.84 in ( 71 x 33 x 25,4 cm ), Unique

Keith Sonnier<br/><em>Botswana Junction 2</em>, 2005

Botswana Junction 2, 2005

Plywood, neon, charcoal, conté crayon
27.95 x 12.99 x 9.84 in ( 71 x 33 x 25 cm ), Unique

See selected works by this artist

b. Mamou, LA, USA, 31 July 1941. Lives and works in New York, USA

Keith Sonnier is a post-Minimalist American artist. Starting out in New York in the mid-1960s, he completely reinvented sculpture, revamping traditionally used materials and techniques to experiment with new forms. Despite sharing a desire for anti-illusionist sculpture with Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt, from the outset, Sonnier’s works were imbued with a more narrative, literary quality than those of the Minimalist artists. In 1968, Sonnier became one of the first artists to explore the effects of light in his work by making and incorporating curved fluorescent lights to initiate a dialogue between the works and their surroundings.

Since the 1980s, he has received around twenty public commissions. Moreover, numerous exhibitions have been dedicated to his work, notably at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1979, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC in 1989, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2003, and, more recently, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, in 2018. His works are featured in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA in New York, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, and MOCA in Los Angeles to name but a few.

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