The artist Keith Sonnier, best known for experimental sculptures that incorporate colorful neon light, has passed away at 78 after a battle with colon cancer. Sonnier first became a key fixture in New York’s burgeoning art scene in the 1960s after having his early cloth and vinyl pieces included in Fischbach Gallery’s landmark show “Eccentric Abstraction,” which paired his work alongside Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse. He soon began to experiment with colored neon, his material of choice, in wildly imaginative sculptures that were some of the first to integrate light. These usually manifested as mangled neon tubes that contrast found objects and non-traditional materials, which became a staple of his work for the next several decades.

Sonnier’s early experiments with neon embraced the material as a means to stretch the definition of drawing, often taking the appearance of “luminous doodles” that bathe the viewer in light, according to an Art in America review of his 2018 show at the Parrish Art Museum. Later in his career, he also created large-scale public artworks, such as the light corridor Lichtweg (1989-92) at Munich’s International Airport. “Becoming engaged with neon was magical to me,” Sonnier told the Brooklyn Rail. “In art making, there’s always a magical element. It’s innate in art making and in art perception and viewing. And that’s why I like to get people to go and see art.”

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