LUCE estratti LUCE 326_Ceresoli_Keith Sonnier | Page 6

Veduta della mostra “Keith Sonnier. Light Works, 1968 to 2017”, Galleria Fumagalli, Milano (27 settembre-19 dicembre 2018).
Keith Sonnier
In his works, light
becomes an object
of thought on the
ways of making art
I
n 1930, the neon began to attract artists’
interest; a protagonist of the Bauhaus,
Moholy-Nagy is among the first to grasp the
expressive potential of light, and, fascinated
by the urban nocturnal illumination,
he experimented with it in his synesthetic
structures. Since then, the fluorescent tube –
at first white, then coloured, as with Dan
Flavin, Maurizio Nannucci, and Bruce Nauman,
just to name a few – is the substance of the
ephemeral, of the art of yesterday and today.
Following the unforgettable Maurizio
Nannucci’s solo exhibition, in which the colour
is written and illuminated, the Fumagalli
Gallery in Milan continues the journey into
the multifaceted possibilities of light, in
particular those of neon – whose name comes
from the Greek word “neos” (new) –, a catalyst
for sensations, reflections, and visions that
are always new and in relation to space.
“Light Works, 1968 to 2017” is the title of the
first major personal exhibition by Keith Sonnier
(1941) in Italy, where the artist is still little
known. The author of the Neon Wrapping
Incandescent series, innovative works of 1970,
animates with curvilinear and fluid sculptures,
coloured fluorescent arabesques, and other
sensory structures the algid environments of
the gallery, transforming it into an emotional
atelier with psychic and visual stimulators.
This exhibition documented the experimental
research evolutions of Sonnier; a post
minimalist artist, active in the field of Process
Art and interested in the Anti-Form research
investigated by Robert Morris, he is
recognizable for the “fluid” structures,
not rigid, in antithesis to the geometric
shapes of Minimalism.
A refined master of perception, Sonnier
debuted in New York in 1968, in the collective
exhibition curated by former exponent of the
American minimalist movement Robert Morris
“9 at Leo Castelli”, alongside Joseph Beuys,
William Bollinger, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman,
Richard Serra, Gilberto Zorio, and Giovanni
Anselmo. In the same year, he exhibited at the
John Gibson Gallery as part of the “Anti-Form”
exhibition; the following year he took part in
“Anti-illusion: procedures/materials” at the
Whitney Museum and, in 1970, in “Information”
at MoMA. Other important exhibitions will
follow at the gallery of Leo Castelli, his patron.
Since the early years, Sonnier works in series
and focuses his research on the use of multiple
matters, introducing organic and industrial
materials such as felt, latex, satin, mirrors,
foam, foam rubber, found objects, radio
transmitters, telephones, videos, films,
and other technological tools. The goal
of the American artist is to question the limits
of traditional sculpture to investigate the
relationship between art, science, space,
light, and sensations, and the introduction
of neon has contributed, along with other
media, to enhance environments with
a refined theatrical effect, poised between
sense and sensibility. A skilled “cosmologist”
LIGHT ART / LUCE 326
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