The following is excerpted from a review by Charlie Tatum posted on April 4, 2019, to the website for Art in America.
In 1968 Keith Sonnier created his first artwork using neon. Untitled (Cloth and Neon) comprises a flashing curved tube filled with the gaseous element, hung on a wall surrounded by pinned scraps of pastel tulle and satin. The work is messy and feels ephemeral. It appears in “Until Today,” now at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and it seems as if the fans ventilating the museum could blow it away. The survey—organized by the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, and running in the artist’s home state of Louisiana through June 2, 2019—follows Sonnier’s ongoing use of neon and contextualizes it within his explorations of form, space, and communication. Viewed in relation to other artists’ more recent, and sleeker, uses of neon, the exhibition offers an important reassessment of an often overlooked pioneer.
To read the full review, visit the website for Art in America.
PURCHASE THE CATALOG FOR KEITH SONNIER: UNTIL TODAY.